20 Tuesday Dec 2011
Posted in Federal Initiatives, Intellectual Property, Just for Fun, Patent, Trademark
Tags
The USPTO has a slick new website. Screenshots below. Check it out now at www.uspto.gov
The business side? Same as before.
18 Friday Mar 2011
Posted in Entertainment Law, Intellectual Property, Just for Fun, Trademark
Tags
Quick…everybody file a trademark application for TIGER BLOOD!
That’s the tune Jimmy Buffett is singing as he just filed an application to protect the trademark (which Charlie Sheen recently popularized) in connection with “Vodka” and “Energy Drinks”. But Jimmy isn’t the only one covering that tune as several others have also filed applications in the past few weeks.
Now the previous owner of TIGERS BLOOD (…it isn’t Charlie Sheen) faces a trademark onslaught of nearly epic proportion. Has a trademark ever had to survive the combined cumulative dilutive and tarnishing effects of Charlie Sheen, dietary supplements and now the boozy bard of Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffett? Which, if any, of the new trademark applications will survive to registration? And how long until Charlie Sheen himself files an application?
Here’s a review of the brief yet spectacular trademark history of TIGER BLOOD:
TIGERS BLOOD – Registered: June 3, 2008 Date of First Use: March 5, 2007
IC 032. Syrups for making soft drinks [Owner: Stuart K. McLaren]
TIGER’S BLOOD – Registered: August 31, 2010 Date of First Use: January 4, 2010
IC 034. Tobacco [Social Smoke, Inc]
TIGERBLOOD – Filed March 3, 2011 Date of First Use: March 2, 2011
IC 005. Dietary supplemental drinks, Meal replacement and dietary supplement drink mixes, Dietary supplemental drinks in the nature of vitamin and mineral beverages, Highly caffeinated energy pills
IC 025. Clothing, apparel, sneakers, athletic wear, t shirts. [Michael M. Heyward]
TIGER BLOOD – Filed March 6, 2011 Date of First Use: Intent to Use (ITU)
IC 005. Nutritional Supplements in liquid form and non-liquid form that relieve or prevent fatigue. Dietary Supplements in liquid form and non-liquid form that relieve or prevent fatigue [Crebit LLC]
TIGER BLOOD – Filed March 6, 2011 Date of First Use: ITU
IC 025. Clothing, Namely, Jackets, overcoats, sweaters, T-shirts, shirts, pants, caps, scarfs, belts, and shoes [Moneyworks, Inc.]
TIGER BLOOD – Filed March 7, 2011 Date of First Use: March 3, 2011
IC 005. Dietary and nutritional supplements; Dietary food supplements; Dietary supplemental drinks; Dietary supplements for human consumption; Liquid nutritional supplement. [Harcos, LLC]
TIGER BLOOD – Filed March 8, 2011 Date of First Use: ITU
IC 005. Dietary and nutritional supplements [Advanced Health Sciences, Inc.]
TIGERBLOOD – Filed March 8, 2011 Date of First Use: ITU
IC 032. Beauty beverages, namely, fruit juices and energy drinks containing nutritional supplements; Concentrates and powders used in the preparation of energy drinks and fruit-flavored beverages; Concentrates, syrups or powders used in the preparation of sports and energy drinks; Energy drinks; Non-alcoholic drinks, namely, energy shots; Sports drinks, namely, energy drinks [Michael J. Mueller, Jacquelyn A. Fritz AKA JJ Fritz, Pablo Cerrilla-Benet AKA Pablo Cerrilla, Waldo M. Abbot AKA Mack Abbot]
TIGER BLOOD – Filed March 10, 2011 Date of First Use: January 3, 2011
IC 025. Hooded sweat shirts; Short-sleeved or long-sleeved t-shirts. [Will Thompson]
TIGER BLOOD TV – Filed March 12, 2011 Date of First Use: March 4, 2011
IC 041. Providing a website for entertainment purposes where users can view and post audio, video, prose and images featuring content related to news, cultural events, pop-culture, arts, music, comedy and sports. [Kimberly A. Arnold, Joel M. Moore]
Never one to miss a beat, even Ol’ Parrothead himself is getting in on the Tiger Blood act. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a new “Tiger Blood” single on the radio before the end of Spring Break.
TIGER BLOOD – Filed March 12, 2011 Date of First Use: ITU
IC 033. Vodka [Margaritaville Enterprises, LLC]
TIGER BLOOD – Filed March 12, 2011 Date of First Use: ITU
IC 032. Energy drinks [Margaritaville Enterprises, LLC]
It turns out that someone at Margaritaville Enterprises must get drunk on filing trademark applications…463 filed so far!
Are there additional TIGER BLOOD applications to come or is this the end of the trend? I know the trademark attorneys for the two registered marks will need to be vigilant in the upcoming weeks. I’ll keep you updated.
21 Tuesday Dec 2010
Tags
There’s a fun new blog, Law and the Multiverse, that applies real world law to comic book scenarios. In their words:
If there’s one thing comic book nerds like doing it’s over-thinking the smallest details. Here we turn our attention to the hypothetical legal ramifications of comic book tropes, characters, and powers. Just a few examples: Are mutants a protected class? Who foots the bill when a hero damages property while fighting a villain? What happens legally when a character comes back from the dead?
The blog touches on many different areas of law, including intellectual property. Here is an excerpt:
In the real world comic book characters and their likenesses have been made into toys, video games, movies, television shows, lunchboxes, bed sheets, and innumerable other things. All of these secondary uses are mediated through intellectual property rights, particularly copyright and trademark rights. But if Superman were a real person, how might the situation be different? Could just anyone slap his image or iconic S shield on a lunchbox? What about uses that suggest that Superman endorses a product or service? (“Try Metropolis Brewery Beer, the choice of the Man of Steel!”) Or worse, what about revealing a superhero’s secret identity?
Their latest post explores a favorite topic of the Indiana Intellectual Property Blog, privacy rights:
From a superhero’s point of view, the main issues here are intrusion into his or her secret identity and secret headquarters, if applicable. The latter case is squarely within the scope of the tort (physical intrusion into a home or office is a classic example of the tort), so let’s focus on the issue of secret identity. In particular, does a superhero’s secret identity fall under the scope of the second element? And when we say “reasonable person” do we mean a reasonable regular person or a reasonable superhero, or does it matter?
The answer to the first question is probably yes. Courts have held that the right to privacy includes psychological & emotional solitude and the intrusion can occur in a public place. See, e.g., Phillips v. Smalley Maintenance Svcs, Inc., 435 So.2d 705, 711 (Ala. 1983) (holding “one’s emotional sanctum is certainly due the same expectations of privacy as one’s physical environment.” and “the ‘wrongful intrusion’ privacy violation can occur in a public place, when the matter intruded upon is of a sufficiently personal nature”). As the definition states, the intrusion need not be directly physical and can include demands and threats. Phillips, 435 So.2d at 711.
For the full post and to explore other areas of law, visit Law and the Multiverse. One of the blog authors is a recent grad of Notre Dame Law School. I’m looking forward to reading the future posts on copyright and trademark.
24 Wednesday Feb 2010
Posted in Intellectual Property, Just for Fun, Musicians, Trademark
The Wall Street Journal has a nice article re: band names and trademark law.
When former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones recently formed a new rock band, the music flowed easily. The struggle: inventing a name for the group.
Between takes in a recording studio, Mr. Jones brainstormed about names with his new band mates, including former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, then checked them online. Their first choice, Caligula, turned up at least seven acts named after the decadent Roman emperor, including a defunct techno outfit from Australia. Eventually the rockers decided on Them Crooked Vultures. The words held no special meaning.
“Every other name is taken,” Mr. Jones explains. “Think of a great band name and Google it, and you’ll find a French-Canadian jam band with a MySpace page.”
For the full article, click here.
Here’s my list of greatest band names:
5. The Grateful Dead
4. Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem
2. Black Sabbath
1. The Band
What are your favorite band names?
22 Monday Feb 2010
Posted in Bloggers, Indiana, Intellectual Property, Just for Fun, Tech Developments
Tags
Navigating the legal waters of advertising and marketing can be difficult task alone when utilizing traditional options, but how does this change when marketing within the digital world? In our third session of this series, we look at the many legal issues surrounding social media and online marketing.
Speakers:
David Wong, Attorney, Barnes & Thornburg
Mary E. Innis, Partner/Chair of the Advertising & Marketing Practices Group, Barnes & Thornburg LLP
Date: March 5, 2010
8:00 a.m. Registration and continental breakfast
8:30 – 9:30 a.m. Presentation
Click here to register.
Hope to see you there!
25 Monday Jan 2010
Posted in Copyright, Indiana, Intellectual Property, Just for Fun, Trademark
The last time Peyton Manning was leading the Indianapolis Colts on a championship run, the NFL clamped down on the ability to watch the big game in churches. The NFL sent letters to churches informing them that airing the game would be a violation of the NFL’s copyright and trademark rights. However, last year the NFL called a reverse and allowed viewing in churches under certain conditions.
So what’s the NFL’s policy this year? Unless we hear otherwise, we have to assume that the NFL is sticking to last year’s policy that churches can air the Super Bowl without violating copyright laws. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear something that would suggest otherwise.
So start planning those parties…Go Colts!
25 Monday Jan 2010
Posted in Bloggers, Indiana, Just for Fun, Tech Developments
Tags
One of the greatest advantages digital marketing offers is the ability to customize and personalize messages based on the recipients’ likes and dislikes. Marketing in the new social media landscape, however, brings with it new challenges of walking the fine line between quality promotion and invasion of privacy.
Our expert panelists will share their views and best practices for developing effective social media marketing platforms utilizing behavioral tracking and personalized content.
Speakers:
David Wong, Attorney, Barnes & Thornburg
Chris Baggott, CEO/CoFounder, Compendium Blogware
Mike Bloxham, Director, Insight & Research Center for Media Design, Ball State University
Date: February 5, 2010
8:00 a.m. Registration and continental breakfast
8:30 – 9:30 a.m. Presentation
Click here to register.
Hope to see you there!
18 Sunday Oct 2009
Posted in Bloggers, Just for Fun, KLF Legal
I was recently asked by a journalist to provide some comments on guest-blogging. I put together the following tips for people thinking of getting into guest-blogging, or perhaps just starting to blog generally:
In addition to my own blogs, I’ve done quite a bit of guest-blogging over the last several years. In fact, my first blogging experience was as a guest blogger on a Virtual Law blog, virtuallyblind.com, created by another attorney, Ben Duranske. Guest-blogging allowed to me learn the in-and-outs of blogging without the pressure of producing content on a regular basis.
Blogging has been a great tool for building my business and gaining recognition in my fields of interest. It’s driven my page to the top of Google search results which of course means more eyeballs seeing the services that I can provide them. Several of my top clients reguIarly comment that they enjoy my blog and the information it provides. I also place importance in the process of researching and writing blog posts, essentially an ongoing CLE that helps me be a better service provider in the long run.
Tips for guest bloggers:
1. Find the Right Audience. If you’ve got a particular topic that you’d really like to write about, write about it! Once you’ve got that great post that you’re excited about, look around and find an existing blog that matches your interest. Contact the blog owner and propose that he/she publish your guest post. I can’t speak for every blog owner, but I would never turn away a guest post with quality content. After all, any positive traffic generated would be to my blog, where people will see my info and content. Even if a blog owner doesn’t want to publish your guest post, the feedback they give can help direct you towards somebody who will.
2. Go for the Oscar. You’ve got the time and energy to really focus on one great blog post, so do it! I think of a full-time blogger as a TV writer, responsible for content day in and day out. Not all of it can be glorious, but the blog readers become familiar with the “character” of the blog writer. A guest blogger is a movie writer. They write that epic post that blows away all the other posts and becomes a definitive source for a particular piece of information. Throw in some explosions, heartwrenching drama, maybe even just great images that the guest blogger spent a little extra time to locate.
3. Guest-Blog 2: The Sequel. Unlike in the movies, sequels are generally a good thing in blogging. Endorse your guest post on your own site and build cross-traffic. Follow-up with additional info in future posts and people (most importantly clients and potential clients) will recognize you as an information hub.
There are several great resources online to help you get started as a guest blogger. If you’re an Intellectual Property attorney or enthusiast who would like to write a guest post for the Indiana Intellectual Property & Technology Blog, please send me a note.
05 Wednesday Aug 2009
Posted in Indiana, Just for Fun, Tech Developments
This year’s Indiana State Fair (starting this Friday, August 7) will go far beyond its popular farm-related exhibits to include a toast to the state’s contributions to space exploration.
The Indiana Space Travels exhibit opens Friday in the fairgrounds’ Grand Hall and runs throughout the fair, which ends Aug. 23.
The exhibit traces Indiana’s contributions to aeronautics, dating back to an 1859 hot air balloon flight from Lafayette that was the nation’s first airmail delivery. The exhibit will also include a Mars roving unit, replicas of a space capsule and the Hubble Telescope, a modular mission control board and artifacts from various space missions.
Former NASA astronaut and Purdue University grad Mark Brown, who flew on two space shuttle missions, will attend Friday’s opening.
Source: Indiana Space Grant Consortium
31 Friday Jul 2009
Posted in Just for Fun, KLF Legal
Connect with this blog’s author on Facebook. There’s a new business page up and I invite everyone to follow the updates and post comments/questions. I look forward to connecting with you.
Kenan Farrell
Twitter: @klflegal
