Color as a Trademark In a few previous blog posts, I’ve discussed the concept of color as a trademark. I looked at why the pink color of Pepto-Bismol was not able to be used as a trademark – because it was determined to be a functional feature of the product (it was in my blog post about the shape of Hershey bars), and, more recently, I looked at a case in which Rawlings was trying to protect the color gold in connection with baseball gloves as a trademark. Rawlings, of course, is famous for their Gold Glove awards. Since this…
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Archives: Trademarks
Sprouts v. Sprouts: Regional Trademark Disputes
October 16, 2012
Sprouts v. Sprouts: Regional Trademark Disputes Many of my Southern California-area readers will be familiar with the Sprouts Farmers Market chain of grocery stores. San Diego’s Boney family originally operated several stores as “Boney’s.” Following the death of founder Henry Boney, the names were changed to “Henry’s.” Recently, stores in the Southern California region saw another name change, this time to “Sprouts Farmers Market.” This is because of a merger between the Henry’s stores and the Arizona-based Sprouts Farmers Market chain (which, confusingly, was also founded by the Boney family). The merged company is now owned by a hedge fund….
Tetris Case: Video Game Copyright
October 10, 2012
Video Game Copyright Recently, the owners of Tetris sued the creators of a similar game, Mino, for copyright infringement. In a fairly simple game like Tetris, which elements can be protected under copyright law?
Gaymer v. Reddit
September 18, 2012
Gaymer v. Reddit In 2008, Chris Vizzini obtained registrations from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for two marks using the word GAYMER (here’s the word mark, here’s the design mark). Mr. Vizzini founded an online community in 2003, gaymer.org, aimed at fostering communication and friendly competition between gay and gay-friendly video game enthusiasts. Reddit.com is a website featuring user-submitted content. Reddit is organized into “subreddits” for every imaginable topic, including /gaymers, which features discussion of gay-positive topics related to video games. Both gaymer.org and /gaymers are seen as a refuge for those who object to perceived homophobia in…
