In case you haven’t been to your local “packie” lately, craft breweries are popping up faster than a hops vine. Occurring in tandem with this proliferation of breweries and quirky beer names, are incidents of breweries clashing over their names and the names of their products. We’re not the first to discuss this phenomenon, but given ongoing reports of trademark spats, the size of the craft brewery market, and the importance of branding to craft breweries, consideration of trademark issues is critical to anyone involved in commercial craft brewing. With approximately 4,600 breweries operating in the U.S., it can be […]

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, […]