What is the purpose of trademark law?  To prevent unfair competition by (a) providing assurance that goods/services are of a certain quality/consistency, and, critically,  (b) assisting consumers in making purchasing decisions. For example, if I go to a McDonald’s restaurant in McLean or Richmond,  I am (generally) guaranteed the same type of restaurant service.  Again, [...]

Madonna’s latest song title prompted a good article on trademark law by one of my colleagues in North Carolina, Donna Berkelhammer.  As you will see, the owner of  the “Girls Gone Wild” franchise,  sent a cease and desist letter to Madonna as to her singing a tune by the same name.  In my humble opinion, the [...]

Looking forward to participating in the Virginia Bar Association’s Fall Career Panel and Intellectual Property CLE Presentation at William & Mary School of Law on November 10, 2011. For the first half, I am a speaker on a Career Panel geared to law students. In the second half, I am moderating a panel on “P.R.O.T.E.C.T. [...]

Companies can become overly aggressive in their efforts to obtain and enforce intellectual property rights. For example, two days after special operations forces killed Osama Bin Laden, as my colleague Donna Chmura noted, Disney filed federal trademark applications for “SEAL TEAM 6” for toys, handheld computer games, Christmas stockings, Christmas tree ornaments and decorations, snow [...]

Here’s the deal. You may own a trademark. A trademark is simply an adjective describing your good or service. Trademarks are designed to assist the consumer avoid confusion as to the source of the goods. For example, if I started a fast-food restaurant and

Victoria’s Secret seems poised to take the “sex” out of “sexy” with its crusade against a small retail store in Kentucky, “Victor’s Little Secret,” that sells sexually oriented merchandise.