Over the last few months, I’ve been receiving this question more often: Can I use generative AI to develop a protectable trademark? And the answer may surprise you: Yes, as long as you still complete a thorough trademark clearance search before settling on a name or logo. However, do I recommend using generative AI to develop a protectable trademark? No. […]
Navigating the USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) can be a formidable challenge, especially for new practitioners before the Board. A common scenario that unfolds during these proceedings involves an opposing party—or more specifically, their attorney—engaging actively during the initial stages, only to become unresponsive as the case progresses and demands more time and resources. This behavior is not […]
For most companies, when it comes to registering trademarks, time is of the essence. With the standard time between application submission and review at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) now stretching to ten months or more, the desire for expedited reviews has become more prevalent than ever. Luckily, there exists a lesser-known tactic—a trademark filing “hack”—that can […]
Selecting and protecting a new brand name is a daunting task for a company of any size. Even for a company as large as Quaker Oats. In recent years, Quaker Oats announced that it would rebrand its “Aunt Jemima” pancake and syrup brand to “Pearl Milling Company.” Nearly 3 years later, the company would finally receive a trademark registration for […]
Content creators, or influencers, are becoming business owners with million-dollar businesses and have to learn the tenets of business, such as intellectual property. New businesses have the challenge of creating and developing successful brands, but influencers have the challenge of turning a successful brand into a well-protected and long-lasting business. One way they can protect the longevity of their brand? […]
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) received over 545,000 trademark applications in 2022. While examining attorneys review each application carefully prior to approval, they are limited in the scope of their examination to application data only. This sometimes leads to the registration of a trademark that is too similar to existing marks. If a damaging trademark has already […]
Have you heard of BIMI? It is a security feature for emails that helps your outgoing messages avoid someone’s spam filter. To qualify for BIMI authentication, one of the requirements is that you have a trademark registered for the logo that will appear on the top left-hand corner of your outgoing messages. Having your emails blocked by spam filters isn’t […]
Three stripes on athletic clothing. Bright red bottoms on shoes. Light blue boxes for jewelry. Do these phrases invoke any particular brands? They should. The owners of these “trade dress” trademarks have poured hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars into the iconic designs and product markers to make them recognizable to consumers. “Trade dress” is a specific type of trademark […]
Smart business owners often pivot, expand, and shift focus for their business in response to market demand, new trends, and new opportunities. If you are one of these business owners, and you own a registered trademark, you might have questions about how your existing trademark covers these new business opportunities. This article explores how and when to consider filing additional […]
The USPTO has recently announced that starting on December 3, 2022, trademark applicants will now only have 3-months to respond to an Office action. This is now half the time of the current 6-month period. This now creates an urgency among trademark applicants to respond quicker to Office actions, as they only have a few months to respond (as opposed to […]
The “idea” of the metaverse isn’t new – the term was coined in a science fiction novel in the early nineties and the idea of a persistent, virtual world has seen many iterations over the years. However, with recent improvements in VR technology, not to mention a pandemic keeping people socially distant, the dream of the metaverse looks ready to […]
Small businesses are looking to get in on the ground floor of the metaverse, just like industry giants Walmart®, Nike®, and McDonalds®. The difference is, that the big companies have the resources to guess where the metaverse is headed and the manpower to research what the metaverse actually is. So how can a small business stay on the cutting edge and […]