How Much Can My Product Look Like Another Company’s Product?
This post discusses how much one company’s product can look like another company’s product without creating intellectual property problems. It largely copies a Quora answer that I wrote recently. Please see How much can my product look like another company’s product without infringing the other company’s intellectual property rights in that product? (more…)
How to Perfect an Intellectual Property Security Interest
Copyright Office Document Cover Sheet
Last week I explained what a security interest is and how it can be perfected, i.e., made effective against third parties. (See What is a Security Interest, and Why Should I Care?) This post discusses how to perfect an intellectual property security interest.
To recap, a security interest is an interest in an asset (the “collateral”) intended to secure performance of an obligation. Typically, that obligation is payment of a debt. Perfection typically consists of filing, with one of more secretaries of state, documents that identify the debtor, the creditor and the collateral. (more…)
The First Sale Doctrine: If I Own It, I Can Sell It
Copyright and trademark owners typically like to exercise their legal rights as broadly as possible. There is however, a well-known limit to those rights called the “first sale doctrine“.
Actually, they are two separate but similar doctrines. One pertains to copyrights, the other to trademarks:
- Copyrights – 17 USC Section 109(a) states, with certain exceptions, that the owner of a lawfully-made copy of a work may sell or dispose of the work. Consent of the copyright owner is not required. So, for example, if you legitimately possess a book or a CD, you may sell it or give it to someone else or throw it into a trash bin.
- Trademarks – The trademark first sale doctrine is a product of case law rather than statute. In Sebastian International, Inc. v. Longs Drug Stores Corporation, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit wrote: “[W]ith certain well-defined exceptions, the right of a producer to control distribution of its trademarked product does not extend beyond the first sale of the product. Resale by the first purchaser of the original article under the producer’s trademark is neither trademark infringement nor unfair competition.” The exceptions include, for example, stolen or counterfeit goods or goods that have avoided the producer’s quality control systems.
Chubby Checker Files Ridiculous Trademark Infringement Suit
Chubby Checker (real name Ernest Evans) – the singer famous for The Twist dance craze in the 1960s – and certain corporations that he controls have filed a lawsuit against Hewlett-Packard Company and Palm, Inc. The suit concerns a no-longer-available app named “The Chubby Checker”.
The app purported to allow women to calculate the size of a man’s penis based on his shoe size. According to webOS Nation, the app was downloaded only 84 times before it was removed in September 2012. Yet press reports state that the plaintiffs are seeking damages of $500 million for trademark infringement and unfair competition!
Don’t Use Social Media if You Have Something to Hide
A client sells high-quality collectibles manufactured from authentic sports-related materials (game-used balls, uniforms, arena flooring, stadium seats, etc.). The company ensures that all materials are licensed by the applicable university or professional sports organizations so it can use the organizations’ names and trademarks in promotional activities. Some competitors do not pay for the required licenses, however – and one of these recently was caught as the result of a Groupon promotion.
ICANN to Help Trademark Owners Prevent Cybersquatting
In an interview in today’s San Francisco Chronicle (“Rod Beckstrom, CEO of ICANN, talks about new domain names“), the CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers stated that ICANN will create a global marks database to help protect trademark owners against cybersquatting.
The database will be developed in conjunction with ICANN’s forthcoming implementation new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom is quoted in the Chron article as saying (emphasis added): (more…)
How Can I Protect the Look and Feel of My Website?
This post discusses whether and how you can protect your website’s “look and feel“.
The reason you would want such protection: Your website has particularly effective visual and interactive elements that help promote your business. You would not want another website to copy those elements, thus make your website and your business less special.
Look and Feel as Trade Dress
Look and feel falls in the category of trade dress, i.e., visual appearance that signifies the source of a product or service. You may be able to obtain a federal trademark registration for the non-functional elements of the website’s look and feel and bring suit against infringers based on that registration. (more…)
“Tea Party” Activists Seek Government Help re Trademarks
Protesters at the Philadelphia Tea Party on April 18, 2009
This is just too delicious: One group of “Tea Party” activists – known for opposing federal government intrusiveness – has brought suit against the registered Tea Party political party in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida (South Florida Tea Party, Inc. v. Tea Party). (more…)
Beware the Unintended Franchise
We all are familiar with well-known? franchises, such as McDonald’s restaurants. What many people do not realize, however, is that a trademark license agreement, if it has certain characteristics, can be considered a franchise agreement under state or federal law, creating huge potential liabilities for the unwary licensor.
In California, Corporations Code Section 31005(a) says that a franchise exists if three elements are satisfied:
- A franchisee is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan or system prescribed in substantial part by a franchisor; and
- The operation of the franchisee’s business pursuant to such plan or system is substantially associated with the franchisor’s trademark, service mark, trade name, logotype, advertising or other commercial symbol designating the franchisor or its affiliate; and
- The franchisee is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee.
“Finding Rin Tin Tin” Sniffs Out Trademark Fair Use Defense
Cover from “Finding Rin Tin Tin” DVD
Those of a certain age will recall watching “Rin Tin Tin” on TV as kids. The venerable canine recently was the subject of a trademark infringement suit (Rin Tin Tin, Inc., et al. v. First Look Studios, Inc., et al.). The defendants prevailed because of the trademark fair use defense.
Rin Tin Tin was a German Shepherd dog found in France during World War I. He became famous through movies and remains well-known to this day.
Plaintiffs breed German Shepherds descended from the original Rin Tin Tin and manage related business endeavors. Rin Tin Tin, Inc. obtained federal trademark registrations for “Rin Tin Tin” pertaining to puppies and dogs of the Rin Tin Tin lineage. (more…)
Gay Marriage Fight Leads to Trademark Smackdown
ProtectMarriage.com (left) and Courage Campaign Logos
It appears that at least some gay marriage foes need to learn a thing or two about trademark law.
On January 12, ProtectMarriage.com sent Courage Campaign a cease and desist letter, alleging that Courage Campaign’s Prop 8 Trial Tracker logo infringes ProjectMarriage.com’s trademark and copyright in its logo.
Licensing Trademarks? Think about Domain Names, Too
The December 2009 issue of les Nouvelles, a publication of Licensing Executives Society International, has an interesting article about the interplay between domain name disputes and trademark licensing.
“WIPO Domain Name Cases Offer Trademark Licensing Lessons,” by Hee-Eun Kim, an LLM student in Munich, Germany, starts by describing the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) and the role of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in resolving disputes under the UDRP. (more…)
Hotels.com Loses Major Trademark Battle
On July 23, 2009 the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided, in In re Hotels.com, L.P., that Hotels.com was not entitled to a federal registration for its service mark HOTELS.COM. (For a brief overview of trademarks and service marks, see Trademark Protection in One Easy Lesson.)
Background: Hotels.com sought to register its mark for the services of ?providing information for others about temporary lodging; travel agency services, namely, making reservations and bookings for temporary lodging for others by means of telephone and the global computer network.? The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) refused the registration on the ground that the mark is a generic term for these services (generic terms, by definition, are incapable of indicating the source of goods or services). (more…)
“Fair Use”: One Term, Two Different Meanings
“Fair use” is a legal term that does not necessarily mean what people often assumes it means (a free pass to use other people’s intellectual property). Indeed, the term has two different meanings, depending on whether copyrights or trademarks are at issue.
Copyright
Copyright protects works of authorship. See Copyright Protection in One Easy Lesson. The copyright owner has the exclusive right (as applicable) to reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, and make derivative works of the copyrighted work.
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized exercise of one of the exclusive rights by someone other than the copyright owner. Thus, for example unauthorized copying of someone else’s music or movie constitutes copyright infringement.
Trademark Protection in One Easy Lesson
A trademark or service mark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and distinguishes the source of goods (trademark) or services (service mark).
(Throughout the remainder of this post, the term “trademark” is intended to include service mark, as well, except where specified otherwise.)
The owner of a trademark has the right to prevent others from using the mark or a confusingly similar mark. (more…)
Watch Out for Asian Domain Name Scams!
Twice within the past 24 hours, a client has contacted me with concerns about trademark protection. In each instance, the concerns were caused by an e-mail that offered specified domain names in Asia. I will describe the e-mails in detail so you will know to be on guard if you receive anything similar:
- The subject line includes terms such as “copyright” or “intellectual property.”
- The text indicates that the sending company, an Internet domain registrar located in Asia, has received a request to register domain names with country codes in Asia that are similar to a “trademark” (more precisely, a domain name) that you own. For example, if you own <universalwidgets.com>, the e-mail might state that there are requests to register <universalwidgets.cn> and <universalwidgets.asia>.
- The e-mail then offers you an opportunity to protect your trademark by buying the Asian domain names yourself, rather than letting them be purchased by the third party. However, to take advantage of this opportunity, you must act quickly.
- The individual ostensibly sending the e-mail has an Americanized name, such as “John Zhou” or “Adam Hao”.
Facebook URLs: The Race is On
Facebook recently began allowing users to name the URLs for their pages. For example, my Facebook page is at www.facebook.com/danashultz. The option to choose a URL appears as soon as the user logs in.
(Not surprisingly, Facebook’s servers appear to be overworked at this time. The first two times I tried to reserve my URL, I was hung up on a “Loading….” message. The third time worked.)
It is easy to anticipate, however, that trademark infringement and cybersquatting will run rampant. If you believe that another Facebook user has chosen a URL that infringes upon your trademark, you can report an infringement of your rights.
Check out all posts about cybersquatting.
Dana H. Shultz, Attorney at Law +1 510-547-0545 dana [at] danashultz [dot] com
This blog does not provide legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you need legal advice, please contact a lawyer directly.
Intellectual Property Blogs
Here are some intellectual property blogs that I like and some of the reasons why they impress me:
- Patent – Patently-O – Professor who says a lot without being too wordy or abstract.
- Copyright – Exclusive Rights – In-house attorney with a sense of humor.
- Trademark – The Trademark Blog – Private-practice attorney who provides case documents. Been blogging since 2002!
- Trade secret – Trade Secrets Blog – Law firm that includes an eye-catching graphic with almost every post.
This blog does not provide legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you need legal advice, please contact an attorney directly.
