William Adams (aka “will.i.am”) member of the well-known music group, The Black Eyed Peas filed a trademark application for the mark I AM at the United States Patent & Trademark Office. The trademark application identified products in international class 3 including but not limited to cosmetics, fragrances, beauty products and…
Most readers will know that Pinterest Inc. (“Pinterest”) owns a social media website that allows users to post content by creating pins on their virtual “pinboard” in subject matters such as fashion, food, recipes, travel and home decor. Pinterest maintains trademark registrations for the marks “PINTEREST” and for “PIN” and…
In an earlier blog post, I stated that there were two significant decisions on the subject of how to use third-party evidence to demonstrate a crowded field of similar marks for similar goods or services. See our blog post entitled The Federal Circuit Sends A Strong Message To The TTAB,…
Several of our clients have recently inquired as to whether their mark can function as a certification trademark. The Trademark Act provides for registration of certification marks under Section 4. It can be any word, symbol, name or device or any combination thereof used by a person other than its…
The Federal Circuit recently issued two trademark decisions on the subject of third party use evidence and the weight that should be given to a crowded field argument. Both of these cases deserve attention. These decisions will have a significant impact on future decisions rendered by the Trademark Trial and…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently reminded trademark owners that secondary meaning may not necessarily develop over time for a merely descriptive trademark. A merely descriptive mark is one that describes a feature, function, purpose, ingredient, quality, or use of an applicant’s goods or services. This…
This blog post is a follow-up to our post entitled, Has One Of Tiffany And Company’s Trademarks Become Generic? posted on February 14, 2014. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York answered the question we asked in our previous post after a two year court battle…
Google announced a new branding identity to the world on September 1, 2015. Read more about Google’s logo update on its official blog. Certainly other brands look to Google to take the lead in innovative branding. Whether you love or hate the new Google logo, it was updated for some…
Failure to conduct a proper trademark clearance search can cause significant legal issues for a trademark owner at some point in the future. It is our practice to continually reiterate and encourage our clients to take the time to conduct a proper full U.S. trademark search before filing an application…
This question is one that is frequently asked by our trademark clients. Once a Final Refusal has issued in an Office Action, a trademark applicant can file a request for reconsideration with the Examining Attorney, file an appeal with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board)”, or the applicant can…