When a Color Scheme Becomes a Color Trademark

A brand name, a logo, a tagline.  These are the traditional trademarks we are all used to.  But what about the non-traditional ones that might come up only a handful of times in the course of a career prosecuting trademark applications?

Are You Ready for Some Football Trademarks?

It’s only mid-August, but the Back-to-School ads are everywhere, which can only mean that football season is also upon us. Here at Name Warden, we see everything through a trademark-related lens, and it’s been a busy summer for football trademarks.

Trademark Likelihood of Confusion and Crowded Fields – Room for One More?

Likelihood of confusion rejections – 2(d) refusals – are a common type of obstacle for a trademark application.  When the examining attorney finds a similar-looking trademark in the USPTO records, for similar-seeming goods or services, up goes the 2(d) flag. What if there is not just one other user of a similar mark, but many? […]

Flat Fees for Trademark Services – How Low and How Public Should You Go?

Wanting greater clarity and trying to appeal to wary potential clients, many trademark lawyers have adopted flat fees for trademark services. If you search around for a few minutes, you will see things like this: “$600+filing fee, filed by a lawyer” “Attorney representation from start to finish. $575+government fees”

Apple files to register “MUSIC” trademarks

Apple has filed with the USPTO to register MUSIC with Apple’s familiar bitten-apple-outline logo as a trademark for software, broadcasting and telecommunications services, social networking, and entertainment.  The gist of the filings and international trademark classes for five trademark applications by Apple are listed here.

Google files trademarks for authentication cards and gesture-tech

We have a few new and interesting USPTO trademark filings by Google, one to brand physical memory cards for use in authentication, where the name is PROJECT VAULT, and the other is for a squiggly logo for use with what sounds like a Minority Report-style gesture capturing technology.

Twitter’s Birdsignals Wants to Help You Use Twitter Data

Twitter filed last week for trademark protection for the mark BIRDSIGNALS, in an apparent move toward deeper ad products and market analysis.  By the description of what its service offering will be, it looks like Twitter wants to help you use its data.

Washington Skins? Washington Pigskins? Redskins Trademark Contingencies or Trolling?

A lawyer listing no client applied for trademark registrations for “Washington Skins” and “Washington Pigskins” around 3:30 in the afternoon on June 18.  That was the same day the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board cancelled the team’s registration for the Redskins trademark registration, finding it disparaging. The services claimed by the […]

Facebook Files for Drones

Earlier this week, Facebook filed a trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to use the mark FACEBOOK in connection with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Drones. So is Facebook looking to keep up with Amazon in the potential use of drones to deliver physical products?  Or are they working on data-collecting flying machines, […]