Monthly Archives: March 2010
North Face Trademark Infringement Suit: An Apparel Face-Off
Recently, The North Face Apparel Corp. initiated a trademark infringement claim against The South Butt, LLC. The North Face is an international clothing and outdoor equipment company. The South Butt is based in Missouri and also markets a number of … Continue reading
Urban Myth: Intellectual Property Protection By Mailing To Yourself
You may have heard it is possible to circumvent the legal process and obtain a patent or a copyright with a postage stamp. Myth. The “poor man’s patent” allegedly involves mailing a description of an invention to yourself or someone … Continue reading
Maintaining Ownership Of Your Ideas
Turning an idea into reality, whether it’s for a novel product or a unique business venture, may involve pitching to a firm with greater resources. Through this process, you can be exposed to serious risks. For example, the potential developer … Continue reading
Estate Planning Helps Provide for Your Florida Pet
Hotel heiress Leona Helmsley is perhaps the most famous example of a person remembering a favorite pet in her will with a twelve million dollar trust fund, but Florida along with forty-one other states and the District of Columbia currently … Continue reading
USPTO Update: More on Patent Reform
The latest efforts in patent law reform have yielded results in the form of tentative legislation in the Senate.Until now, the most recent patent law revison was a bill in the House of Representatives in 2007, which ultimately stalled because … Continue reading
Proposed Rule Will Create Opportunities for Women-Owned Small Businesses
Recently, the Small Business Administration has proposed a new rule pertaining to the Business Development Program, which is intended to help underrepresented and disadvantaged small businesses obtain more opportunities to compete for federal contracts.A study by the SBA found that … Continue reading
Florida Tax Evader OJ Simpson and the other 5 Most Infamous Tax Evaders of All Time
Ben Franklin may have been overly optimistic for the Internal Revenue Service when he said that the only two certainties in life are death and taxes. For many people, avoiding their tax responsibility is an art form. From offshore accounts, … Continue reading
Novel Simplicity: Google Gets a Design Patent
Recently, the popular internet search engine, Google, was awarded a design patent. Soon afterward critics emerged, touting that Google had abused the patent system. Such critics may not be familiar with the fine distinctions between design and utility patents. Whereas … Continue reading
Is a Consistent Brand Stronger?
What’s in a brand? This chart claims Pepsi has changed its logo its multiple times over the past decades. However, both Pepsi and its competitor Coca-Cola have changed their logos over time. With that said, is a consistent, “timeless” logo … Continue reading
UPC Removal Equals Trademark Infringement?
That’s right, removing a UPC can amount to trademark infringement in some instances. Such was the case between retailer CVS and luxury fragrance company, Zino Davidoff. Davidoff packages and distributes luxury products like the Cool Water fragrance, which is preferably … Continue reading