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Naked licensing is a means of losing a trademark registration unintentionally. It is, that is, a trap that a trademark owner can fall into without realizing by misusing the mark, allowing others to use it improperly, or even by lowering standards of quality of products or services sold until the  trademark. This Article defines naked licensing. We also discuss how naked licensing occurs and how to avoid it. In particular, we also discuss how a Michigan trademark attorney will ensure that you do not trip and fall into naked licensing loss of trademark rights. Naked Licensing Defined Licens ..read more

It An application to register a trademark critical of government officials may be refused under the US Trademark Act. However, this could be changing. This Article will discuss the underlying law concerning trademarks critical of government officials. It also discusses the changing landscape underpinning this framework. We’ll start with the basics. The Lanham Act & Federal Trademark Registration The Lanham Act is the US Trademark Act. Although Michigan has its own process for state-based trademark registration, Federal trademark registration is at issue here. It is “Federal” because it ari ..read more

Trademark clearance searching is vital for craft brewers and breweries. With the proliferation of craft brewers throughout Michigan and the rest of the United States has come a proliferation of brewery names, beer brand names, can and bottle labeling and packaging designs, and even new logos. In such an active market, even interesting and unique business and product names may prove to be in prior use. However, you wouldn’t know that if you didn’t run a trademark clearance search before filing your registration application with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). This Article will discu ..read more

You can lose trademark rights once you’ve obtained them in a number of different ways. Nearly all of these ways involve your failure as a trademark owner, or registrant, to maintain, renew, or enforce your trademark registration. Trademark registration is unlike copyright registration, for example, in this way. Unlike copyright registration, a trademark registration will last an infinite amount of time, hypothetically. Copyright registration lasts only for a fixed period of time before a copyright slides into the public domain. However, this “immortal” trademark life-span comes with strings at ..read more

Trademark Class 21 is the International Class appropriate for household and kitchen utensils and containers—among other things. What are those Trademark Class 21 products specifically, however? And what exactly is an “International Class?” This Article will discuss Trademark Class 21 in detail, as well as the Trademark Class system generally. Following that discussion, we will also discuss possible issues with a trademark registration application filed in Class 21. The Article will then conclude with a discussion of how your Class 21 trademark registration application will be more likely to su ..read more

The importance of trademark registration for record labels cannot be understated. As with any music business venture, the name of an independent record label is likely to be colorful and distinctive. The record label is likely to utilize a creative and eye-catching logo in all of its marketing and product packaging. Those brand identifiers need to be protected with trademark registration in order to ensure that music fans are not confused as to whose are products are being. Trademark registration will ensure, even when album and single releases are conducted through online storefronts and plat ..read more

Copyright registration is as important a consideration for board game designers as is the design of the game itself. At least, it should be. Along with trademark registration, the copyright registration of the board game’s logo, box and board artwork, and other “creative” elements are, in fact, the protectible components of the game. (Trademark registration protects the name itself, any slogan used on the box lid or in advertising or social media. It also protects the stylization, or logo, for the game’s name use in “trade” of that sort.) The mechanics of the game are not registrable as either ..read more

Social media influencers need to register trademarks just as any other business enterprise does. Influencers create content under unique handles and user-names that potentially draw followers in numbers that standard retail businesses can only dream of. The entertainment, broadcasting, and other “services” provided by social medial influencers is, furthermore, entirely internet-based. Thus, influencers are uniquely vulnerable to trademark and copyright infringement on a global basis. Registration of influencers’ names, handles, and logos and other branding design elements can protect against i ..read more

It is possible to oppose the approval of trademark registration application filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). It may be, in fact, your obligation to enforce your mark against infringement. The USPTO Examiner approves new trademark registration applications based upon its estimate of conflicts only. You may harbor your own opinion as to whether a an application infringes upon your registered trademark. If so, you can oppose the final registration of the mark even when a USPTO Examiner allows it through. An Opposition proceeding is third-party adversary litigation before the ..read more