BizTech Law Blog
The Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles are playing in Super Bowl LIX this Sunday, February 9. If the Chiefs win, this will be their third consecutive Super Bowl win, and, according to the Kansas City Star via reporter Blair Kerkhoff, the team can purportedly use Miami Heat team president and legendary NBA coach Pat Riley’s trademarked phrase “three-peat”.
With the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and its various synthetic media outputs, deepfakes are just one of many new risks to businesses. Deepfakes pose considerable threats to companies, potentially damaging reputation, trust, and financial stability through malicious impersonation and manipulation of digital content.
Through tactical litigation practices, copyright trolls rely on copyright law to allege infringement and threaten major statutory damages upon unsuspecting defendants. The term “copyright troll” is an unflattering nickname for someone who manipulates the intellectual property (“IP”) laws to force a “toll” by way of a settlement payout on market participants.
Due to the depth of information this article provides, the full article is linked below and is also featured under 'Publications' on this site.
As the old phrase goes: what’s in a name? For any business, a name is a brand. A name is tied to a reputation, a marketing strategy, and a presence within an industry. We have all laughed at off-brand products in grocery store aisles: Mountain Mist masquerading as Mountain Dew, Mr. Pibb stepping in for Dr. Pepper, or Cinnamon Crunch Squares replacing Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Other times, similar names represent companies in unrelated industries: Domino Sugar vs. Domino’s Pizza or Delta Airlines vs. Delta Faucets. But when does a company’s name cross the line into violating another company’s rights?
See the full article here.
Planning on starting your own business? One of the first things that you should do is select a trademark.
The United States Supreme Court recently struck down a provision of the Lanham Act that denies registration of disparaging trademarks.
What is a trademark? A trademark is the identity that you have in the marketplace specifically associated with your goods or services. Any name, phrase, identity, symbol or logo your company uses in conjunction with selling your goods and services is a trademark. There are two types of trademarks. Learn more in the short video below.
There are four basic kinds of intellectual property that you can protect: trademarks, copyrights, patents and trade secrets. At the very early stages of starting a business you will want to protect your business name or brand through a trademark. Learn more about intellectual property basics and what you need to protect, in the Youtube video below.
Sam Frederick and John Mashni, both attorneys for Foster Swift, will be presenting a live webinar on how to protect your business's intellectual property on Tuesday, September 15, 2015 at the Lansing Regional Chamber Board Room. The webinar will be held from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
They will discuss copyright, trademark and trade secret basics and the importance of monitoring and enforcing your intellectual property rights. Frederick and Mashni will also present the best practices for protecting your intellectual property.
For more information and to register for the webinar, click here (We have identified that the following link is no longer active, and it has been removed.)
Why is a business name so important? A name is everything, it is your business's identity. When you select your business name, from a legal perspective, you need to come up with a unique name, a name that does not infringe on others rights. Unique names are the easiest to protect. Learn more about protecting you business name in the video below:
On June 18, the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") cancelled the Washington Redskins' trademark in its team name, concluding that the term "Redskin" was racially offensive and derogatory towards Native Americans.
Under the Lanham Act, Federal Trademark Law prohibits the registration of trademarks that "may disparage" individuals or groups or "bring them into contempt or disrepute." In a controversial 2-1 decision, the USPTO agreed with a group of petitioners who claimed the team name was disparaging to Native Americans, and thus was not permitted to receive the protections afforded by trademark law. The Washington Redskins plan to appeal the decision and have responded by saying that the term is meant to honor Native Americans and is not considered offensive by many.
Crowdfunding, some would say, is the new social networking platform of raising money from people online. While crowdfunding is a relatively new term and concept, traditional principles of law still apply. Artists, startups and online creators using this new platform are governed by Intellectual Property principles.
Intellectual Property (IP) refers to the creations of the mind; and most commonly include ideas or inventions, literary and artistic works, symbols that identify your brand, names, logos and/or competitive business ideas or information. Under this broad umbrella of Intellectual Property, there are generally four categories that govern the use of Intellectual Property:
- Trademarks
- Patents
- Copyrights
- Trade Secrets
Before pitching or disclosing your concept to an online crowdfunding community to raise money these four categories of protection and the potential resulting consequences should be thoroughly examined. Failure to do so could result in the inadvertent theft, infringement or forfeiture of your IP rights. Let's take a deeper look at these four categories.
Earlier this year, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body responsible for managing top-level domain name spaces (e.g., .com, .org, .edu and .gov), approved .xxx as a new top-level domain name space. .xxx top-level domain names are intended for adult content. However, as noted in a prior posting, the .xxx top-level domain could result in unwanted affiliation between your brand and the adult entertainment industry or create an opportunity for brandjackers to register "www.YourCompany.xxx."
What is "intellectual property" and why should it matter to your business? At the most basic level, "intellectual property" is one of an organization's most valuable assets. Intellectual property frequently differentiates extraordinary companies from "average" organizations. For that reason, IP must be zealously protected. IP breaks down into four areas: patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.
Trademark infringement is a reoccurring problem for many businesses. Recently, Apple, Inc. was denied an injunction prohibiting Amazon.com from using its mark: "App Store." Amazon.com utilized the name "Amazon Appstore for Android." Despite similarities between the parties' marks and services, the court found that a likelihood of confusion did not exist and Amazon.com did not infringe on Apple's mark.
With that in mind, let's take a look at the basic elements regarding trademark infringement.
Recently, I received a phone call from a client asking for advice on a reoccurring issue. The client asked: “Do I have legal recourse against a competing website that is utilizing my trademark in its domain name?”
The short answer is yes, but let's look at the reasons why.
Simply put, a domain name is a Web site's unique address on the Internet. It can be used to identify organizations and other entities on the Web (e.g., http://www.nike.com). Like any other advertising message, signage, or other communication, a domain name can infringe upon a trademark. However, a claim of trademark infringement involves more than simply proving that your trademark is being used in another’s domain name.
The America Invents Act recently passed the US House of Representatives by a vote of 304-117. A similar bill was approved 95-5 in the Senate in March. President Obama has pledged that he would sign a patent reform bill once it reaches his desk. Therefore, it appears that it is only a matter of time before it is sent to the President to be signed into law.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body responsible for managing top-level domain name spaces (e.g., .com, .org, .edu and .gov), recently approved .xxx as a new top-level domain name space. .xxx top-level domain names are intended for adult content. However, the .xxx top-level domain could result in an unwanted affiliation between your brand and the adult entertainment industry or create an opportunity for brandjackers and cybersquatters to register “YourCompany.xxx” in order to trade off your company’s brand or extract payments.
How would you like to have the weight of the U.S. Federal Government behind you in combating piracy of your product? And how would you like to have it for free? If you answered no to both, perhaps you should reevaluate your business acumen. For those who answered in the affirmative, please read on.
The free service is offered through the Office of Intellectual Property Rights (OIPR) of the U.S. Department of Commerce. OIPR can assist your company in combating intellectual property piracy of your products. After you have secured your intellectual property protections at home and abroad and taken local enforcement steps through the administrative or legal process, OIPR will step in on your behalf and work with the foreign government to target, confiscate and destroy the piracy items.
Have you ever taken the time to Google your company name?
It might be worth your time. If you find that your competitors are more prominently displayed in the tan sponsored link box or along the right side of the search page, you may be able to stop these companies from purchasing your company's trademarks as Google Adwords.
