While many outside the nation’s capital were engrossed in this weekend’s football games, those inside the beltway were engrossed in their own local sport: politics (especially because D.C.’s team – who shall remain nameless even as that name may be trademarked – hasn’t played for the Lombardi trophy in 26 years). Specifically, “Shutdown” was THE … Continue Reading
I am officially a big fan of The Slants. I’ve never seen them in concert. I don’t own any of their albums (I’ve never even downloaded any of their individual songs). I’m actually still not entirely sure what “Chinatown Dance Rock” really is. But I will forever be indebted to Simon Shiao Tam and crew. … Continue Reading
(Our Annual Reminder to be careful how you use “Super Bowl”® and other NFL trademarks) If I had my way, I’d probably never write on this topic again. Every year I rack my brain for a hook to help re-remind readers about the dangers of using the term “Super Bowl”® – and any “Super Bowl”®-related … Continue Reading
Completing a process which began one year and one week earlier, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published a final rule in the Federal Register on October 21, 2016 which will change the fees for forty-two different trademark filings. The upshot is that anyone in the very small universe of people who still … Continue Reading
The biggest scandal this time of the year tends to be the NFL's heavy-handed efforts to protect trademarks, even those it doesn't own.… Continue Reading
A new, accelerated process for dealing with cybersquatters is in the works, thanks to ICANN. But if you want to take advantage of it, you'd be well advised to register your important business identifiers -- trademarks, slogans and the like -- first.… Continue Reading
There's yet another reason to register your trademarks (including call signs, slogans and the like) -- the new .XXX domain for adult-oriented websites.… Continue Reading
It's time for that most evergreen of January stories: the annual reminder that you have to be careful about using the words "super" and "bowl" together in any way.… Continue Reading
In case you didn't take our recent alert about the Invasion of the Trademark Enforcers seriously, the NFL has kindly illustrated our point . . . again.… Continue Reading
Facebook doesn't do a great job of getting its own news out. Case in point: the effect on intellectual property rights that occur through the addition of "usernames" that will make it easier to find individual Facebook pages… Continue Reading
The window opens on December 3 for registering ".tel" domain sites. ".tel" is a new top level domain name that is intended to identify repositories of corporate and personal contact information. As we become increasingly reliant on our Blackberries, iPhones, Palms, Treos and even plain old mobile phones, ".tel" domains are likely to become essential resources for accessing important information that once required a computer or even those old things known as "books".… Continue Reading
