A Spirited Dispute: How a Squeaky Dog Toy and Jack Daniel’s® Whiskey Created a Sea Change in Trademark Law

September 4th, 2024|The Brand Lawyer|

As we all know, trademarks are critically important in business, not just as assets improving value, but in the marketplace to reliably identify and distinguish goods and services, thereby protecting businesses from infringement and consumers from deception. While this purpose is  at the heart of [...]

SCOTUS NAME PROTECTION DECISION

August 9th, 2024|The Brand Lawyer|

By Eric Fram One of the core principles of trademark law is that trademarks symbolize the reputation of their owners.  Courts have therefore found that “a party has no first Amendment right to piggyback off the goodwill another entity has built in its name.”   This principle [...]

FTC Cracks Down on Potential False Testimonials

October 15th, 2021|Brand Mistakes, Brands Generally, Fair Use, False Advertising, News, The Brand Lawyer|

by Lisa Dubrow   Lots of action this week at the FTC relating to potential violations based on false endorsements and consumer reviews and testimonials. The FTC put more than 700 companies on notice that they could incur significant civil penalties (up to $43,792 per [...]

WHAT’S IN A LIFETIME? MORE THAN YOU MIGHT THINK.

June 26th, 2020|Advertising, Brand Licensing, Content Clearance, Digital Advertising, Digital Marketing, Intellectual Property, News, The Brand Lawyer|

By Lisa Dubrow   Offering lifetime subscription terms carries some true risks, starting with: what does “lifetime” mean? Since a subscription provides access to a product, and sometimes, free updates or other benefits as the product or technology evolves, an understanding of the actual length [...]

Important Supreme Court Case on Trademark Infringement

April 28th, 2020|Brand Licensing, Brand Mistakes, Intellectual Property, News, The Brand Lawyer, Trademark Protection|

In a rare unanimous opinion from the Supreme Court, the Justices on April 23rd held that proving an infringer’s willful intent to infringe is not required for obtaining the infringer’s profits resulting from the infringement.  In Romag Fastener, Inc. v. Fossil Group, Inc., the Court [...]

‘How I Met Your Mother’ Director Pamela Fryman & Actress Ashley Williams Team With ‘Margin Call’ Producer Neal Dodson On ‘Killing It: An Education’

January 28th, 2020|News|

How I Met Your Mother director Pamela Fryman and actress Ashley Williams, Margin Call producer Neal Dodson and producer Alan Grossbard are teaming up on an adaptation of the Penguin Random House-published memoir Killing It: An Education. Fryman, who directed all but 12 of the [...]

This is a brand’s world

May 6th, 2019|Brand Innovation, Brand Licensing, Digital Advertising, Digital Marketing, Leading brands, News, Social media platforms, Uncategorized|

Michael J Salvatore explains how to manage brands online in the social media age. Social media has become increasingly intertwined in the fabric of society and has become, for most of us, an integrated part of our everyday lives. According to one source, there will [...]

Travis Falstad says Hololens 2 is a Pragmatic and Solid Step Forward for AR

March 14th, 2019|Mediated Reality, Uncategorized|

In a recent article at his new, important information resource, XRTRENDS.IO, my friend and colleague, Travis Falstad gave the following appraisal of the new Hololens 2: https://youtu.be/c_jEPRVFUvQ Los Angelenos are focused on The Oscars today. Tech news is piggybacking on that story with the [...]

The Mirror World? The AR Cloud? The Magicverse? Whatever You Call It, It’s Here, And It’s Growing!

March 4th, 2019|Mediated Reality, Uncategorized|

Let’s say you’re in New York, walking by the Empire State building wearing your Magic Leap One. You look up and see the hot new Banksy virtual graffiti installation.  For this to be realized, someone will have to construct a virtual Empire State Building first. [...]