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Your product is now known as the generic version of the goods. And the best example we’re going to use, I don’t know if most of you remember in the seventies, you did not say, “I want to get a copy of this made.” You would say, “can you get me a Xerox?” Well, Xerox Read More

People run into this, run into awkward situations where a mark is either originally was deceptive, misleading, or scandalous, or it just so happens that somebody makes a slang word out of their mark and suddenly what was an innocent mark suddenly becomes known as something that’s not acceptably socially. That way is another way Read More

Another way of losing your mark is something called naked licensing. I become fairly popular with my mark. My mark becomes desirable. I decide to franchise. So I’m McDonald’s, I go out and I have a bunch of new McDonald’s restaurants. However, in my franchise agreement, I do nothing that regards the quality of the Read More

Now, another way to lose the mark is I don’t police my mark in a marketplace. For instance, I become aware of a few other companies that are using my mark, but I say, eh, doesn’t bother me. Either it’s not that close or it’s a big enough marketplace, or maybe they’re on a different Read More

I’m a successful trademark company and I have a fairly large portfolio of trademarks, 50 to 100 of them. That gets to be a little bit unwielding. The question becomes, how do I make mistakes and I lose my trademarks? Okay, first of all, the most obvious loss of a trademark is I don’t use Read More

When one files a trademark, one files on identification of goods or services, you have a listing. If I am a company and I sell product A and I trademark product A and I now venture out and I want to now sell product B and there’s no real relationship between products A and B. Read More

It is important to establish a confidential relationship with your customer. If your invention is not patentable and customers won’t sign an NDA. Of course, when you start to manufacture your invention, your competition will see it, and can legally copy it until your patent issues. Even if you do not share your invention, but Read More

One of the values of a trademark, it’s called branding. Once your mark becomes popular in the marketplace and people associate that mark with a quality product and a desired product, that makes your branding more valuable. You have a registered trademark with that brand, that is tangible asset that you can franchise, license, of Read More

As an inventor and applicant, you may contact the Patent Office directly. The Patent Office will answer an applicant’s inquiries as to the status of the application and inform you whether your application has been rejected, allowed, or it is awaiting action. However, if you have a patent attorney or agent of record in the Read More

There’s always the fear that somebody’s going to put in a domain name and use your same trademark as a domain name. First of all, yes, if you get a trademark, it is bright, behooves you to go ahead and instantly register for the domain name. It’ll prevent future fights. Even my own firm’s trademark Read More