Recently, I was discussing with a client a topic that I think is often overlooked by businesses.  If you’ve been following us for a while, you know we’re [perhaps not surprisingly] big proponents of businesses registering their trademarks at the federal level.  Although obtaining a registration is an important part of protecting the goodwill that a business has accrued in its trademarks, in connection with the goods/services it currently offers [hint, hint], doing so is not the “end of the story.” When a company adopts a new mark in connection with its goods and/or services, seeking to “clear,” protect, and […]

Since our last blog post, we’ve been on the lookout for other cautionary tales that highlight some basic aspects of trademark and copyright law.  Sadly, it didn’t take long, as highlighted in a recent post from The TTABlog® addressing the importance of getting your description of goods/services right. The application at issue was for the mark PITCHINGSMART and listed the services [for which registration was sought] as “entertainment in the nature of baseball games,” though the Applicant actually meant to apply for different services.  After immediately discovering the error post-filing, the applicant, who did not actually offer “baseball games” services, […]

O.K., that may be overstating things a bit, but big changes are on the horizon for trademarks in the EU.  As background: member nations of the EU maintain their own trademark regulations and registration systems, and are also part of a separate EU body called the “Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market” (“OHIM”), which is responsible for the administration, registration and maintenance of “Community Trademarks,” which cover all of the EU. The changes generally seek to harmonize the trademark laws of the various EU members and OHIM (which is, thankfully, being re-named the “European Union Intellectual Property Office”), with […]