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Clothing your trademark license with certain contractual provisions can possibly cover an otherwise uncomfortably bare exposure. An owner of a trademark has a duty to ensure the consistency of its trademarks, as well as the good(s) and/or service(s) under which its trademarks are used. If a trademark owner enters into a license agreement and fails […]
Committed to its mission of providing superior service to a wide range of clients, Walter | Haverfield is pleased to welcome Dave Grillo to its Intellectual Property team. As a registered patent attorney, Dave has extensive experience preparing and prosecuting patent applications in software, electrical, and mechanical fields for Fortune 100® companies, startups, and individual inventors. He is […]
Why would someone, or some business, want to file for or ultimately obtain a patent? The short answer is that there are many different answers and reasonings, and inventors, entrepreneurs and businesses should make a balanced assessment on an ongoing basis. What a patent provides is not a right to do something or have something. […]
Walter | Haverfield attorney Kevin Soucek advises companies to do their due diligence before introducing a brand name in the marketplace. Soucek’s article appeared in “Mind Your Business,” an e-newsletter for small business owners published by the Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE).
There are many nuances and specific factors that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) considers when deciding if a trademark (which indicates the source of the goods or services) is a candidate for registration. Before you invest the time and money into your application, read the following: Trademark applications can be refused for […]
On December 15, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) struck down the portion of the Lanham Act (aka the Trademark Act) which prevented immoral or scandalous trademarks from being registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The CAFC’s decision involved the term FUCT (In re Brunetti) […]
Court decision clears registration path for “questionably offensive” trademarks; could possibly negate challenges to use of Chief Wahoo logo By Jamie Pingor and Kevin Soucek. “Questionably Offensive Trademarks Cleared for U.S. Registration,” also appeared online in Crain’s Cleveland Business on July 12, 2017. On June 19, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the disparagement […]
In an article published by Crain’s Cleveland Business on February 18, 2017 and titled, “Protect your creative assets – here and abroad,” D. Peter Hochberg maintained that, unless a company’s creative assets are protected with registered trademarks, it could be ripped off by it competitors or it may lose its marketing edge.
If your business has a trademark but hasn’t registered it, one of your most valuable assets could be at risk. A key challenge is that many businesses that use trademarks are not even aware that they can and should be registered. A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of any […]