I spend a lot of time on this blog getting into the nitty-gritty of intellectual property, but it’s important from time to time to take a step back and review the basics of the subject (and, of course, provide an introduction to those who are new to the subject.) Last week, I had the opportunity to teach a class at UC San Diego’s Rady School of Management. The class is “Innovation to Market,” and my lecture was an overview of Intellectual Property for Businesses. It was a lot of fun, and now it’s time to take it out of the…
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Archives: Trademarks
Trademark Dispute: Can a Video Game Use Another Company’s Trademark?
February 24, 2015
When can you use another company’s trademark in an artistic work? A recent trademark dispute involving the video game Call of Duty: Ghosts and an image of a monkey (no, not the famous monkey selfie) digs into this question.
Can the Title of a Single Book be a Trademark?
February 3, 2015
People often ask me how they can protect the name of their individual work, whether it be a book, song, software composition, or anything else. Protecting names can be challenging. Names, titles, and short phrases are not subject to copyright protection. That leaves us with trademark law. Can the name of an individual work be protected as a trademark?
Re/Max Trademark Conflicts with Dutch Flag?
January 20, 2015
A few years ago, Re/Max, the real estate brokerage company, sued a competitor in the real estate market. The conflict focused on the alleged similarity of M.L. Jones & Associates’ yard signs and Re/Max’s famous red, white, and blue logo. Re/Max has been using the logo in at least one format since 1974, and has several longstanding US trademark registrations. Assuming the marks are similar, this is an open-and-shut case for Re/Max, right? A U.S. District Court judge in North Carolina came to a different, possibly logical but certainly vexillogical, conclusion.
