In today’s digital economy, subscription-based content platforms like OnlyFans, JustforFans, Vimeo, Patreon, and YouTube have created unprecedented opportunities for creators to monetize their work directly to the consuming public. However, these opportunities come with complex intellectual property (IP) considerations that content creators must understand to protect their rights and avoid potential legal issues. Copyright Fundamentals …
Tag: trademarks
Understanding Genericide of Color Marks
Color Marks: The Basics Color marks represent one of the more challenging types of non-traditional trademarks. Since the landmark Supreme Court decision in Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co., single colors can serve as trademarks when they identify the source of goods or services. However, obtaining trademark protection for a color presents unique hurdles: Last …
Heating Up: FIREBALL Not Generic
Understanding Trademark Genericism Trademark law exists to protect distinctive marks that identify the source of a particular good or service. However, when a trademark becomes so widely known that it no longer acts as a source identifier, but the mark primarily describes the product in which it is being used, it risks becoming “generic” and …
Understanding the Doctrines of Natural Expansion and Tacking
A recent Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit case sheds light on two little-known trademark doctrines: the doctrine of natural expansion and the doctrine of tacking. Both can be useful arguments in an ex parte application. However, both require very specific sets of facts in order to apply them properly in a response. In …
Understanding Trademark Distinctiveness
The concept of distinctiveness is important under trademark law because it is one of the requirements for a federally registered mark. Distinctiveness goes to the strength of the mark. In theory, the more distinctive a mark, the more likely it is capable of identifying and distinguishing against all other sources of goods and services used …
Thoughts on Elster and the Names Clause
Eight months after the U.S. Supreme Court held in the Elster case that so-called Names Clause under Section 2(c) of the Lanham Act, the federal trademark law, prohibited the use of a living person’s name in a proposed mark without that person’s consent, we are still seeing many applications filed raising Section 2(c) issues. What …
Washington Redskins Skinned: Effect of The TTAB’s Cancellation
By Brent T. Yonehara INTRODUCTION There has been recent controversy regarding the use of the Washington Redskins trade name.[1] Today, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) summarily cancelled six trademark registrations held by the Pro Football, Inc..[2] Many people, including President Obama, have objected to the continued use of the REDSKINS mark.[3] While there …