It’s Girl Scout Cookie Time! The arrival of those industrious young women and the delicious products they peddle is always a welcome time of year at our home. We have been waiting for a year to get our Samoas fix. This year we scoured the product list, but no Samoas. Our astute Girl Scout representative
Trademark 101
Offensive Trademarks are Protected Under the First Amendment
By Lauren Rucinski on
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a provision of federal trademark law banning offensive trademarks from federal registration is unconstitutional. Matal v. Tam, No. 15-1293 (U.S. June 19, 2017). The case concerned a dance rock band’s application for a federal trademark registration of the band’s name, “The Slants.” “Slants” is a derogatory term for…
Protecting Your Brand 101
By Devin Ricci on
Trademarks and service marks (collectively, “trademarks”) are source identifiers or brand names. For example, JUST DO IT ® identifies a brand of athletic clothing and gear by Nike. A trademark is essentially a word, phrase, symbol, design or combination thereof that is used to identify and distinguish the source of one party’s goods or services…