Significant Changes in Trademark Law That Could Affect Your Business

New Rules and Procedures Intended to Aid Trademark Owners In today’s business world dominated by a proliferation of internet companies, acquiring rights to valuable trademarks and protecting them against infringement has been a daunting, often complicated and frequently expensive undertaking.  This has been particularly true for trademark owners initiating and maintaining a civil trademark infringementRead More

Damages in Federal Trademark Infringement Lawsuits

My clients always express concern, and rightly so, with the potential costs and expenses to bring and maintain a trademark infringement claim in federal court, and if successful, what the client might recover as damages.  Within this context, it is imperative that the client fully understand from the outset what types of damages are potentiallyRead More

Protect Your Trademark From Committing Genericide

As a direct result of the pandemic, face-to-face communication among groups and with strangers has been virtually suspended.  People and businesses alike have come to rely on Zoom as a viable, safe alternative to in person meetings.  The general pubic may or may not know that “Zoom” is a trademark owned by Zoom Video Communications,Read More

That Four Letter Word Can Now Be a Trademark

Selecting the wrong trademark for your business can be a big and costly mistake.  For example, last January, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the federal court of appeals decision that struck down a longstanding federal statute prohibiting registration of any trademark consisting of, or comprising immoral or scandalous matter. At issue was a mark thatRead More

Trade Secret Protection for Valuable Customer Lists

It is without dispute that customer lists can be of considerable value to a company. To maximize protection and value for these valuable assets, the prudent business owner should consider trade secret protection against misappropriation statutes under applicable state or federal law.  Courts generally recognize that customer lists are not automatically entitled to trade secretRead More

USPTO & Changes in Hemp Regulations

On December 20, 2018, Pres. Trump signed into law the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 (the “2018 Farm Bill”). The new law provides important agricultural and nutritional policy extensions for five years.  The most interesting changes involve the cannabis plant, and its potentially significant impact on the application for and registration of trademarks used inRead More

To Trademark or Not to Trademark? (Part I)

That is the question.  Many business and service providers operate for years without considering whether they should trademark elements of their business.  The most common way people think of (and see) trademarks are through logos (think: New England Patriots or Apple Computers).* However, a company can also trademark a slogan it commonly uses, like, “Employment Wisdom on theRead More