Cisco’s General Counsel blogs about dispute with Apple over iPhone trademark In an interesting PR move, Mark Chandler, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Cisco Systems, has posted an informative description of the Apple-Cisco iPhone trademark lawsuit on one of Cisco's blogs. Commentary on the blog, while mixed, appears to be predominantly positive, particularly by those who did not understand Cisco's legal position when the […] Continue Reading →
Federal Circuit proposes revised circuit rules The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has proposed changes to its Circuit Rules. The revised rules would require parties, in addition to filing paper copies of briefs and appendices, to also file the briefs and appendices in electronic form unless counsel certifies that filing an electronic copy would not be practical or constitute hardship. The […] Continue Reading →
Ketchup makers battle over rights to “red zone” Ketchup giant Heinz and rival ketchup maker Red Gold are embroiled in a trademark dispute over the right to use “Red Zone” in promotions associated with football games. In football, the red zone is the common name of the area between the 20-yard line and the end zone, and a team’s offense is often measured […] Continue Reading →
University of Texas sues over use of “sawed-off” horns logo The University of Texas has sued Aggieland Outfitters, a retailer in College Station, Texas (home of rival university Texas A&M) over its use of a modified version of the Texas Longhorns logo. The original logo and the modified version appear below: The retailer has been selling merchandise bearing the "sawed off" logo since 1997, but […] Continue Reading →
Starbucks loses Korean appeal, Starpreya can continue to use name there The Korean Supreme Court today denied an appeal by Starbucks to cancel a rival's trademark there. Specifically, the Court noted that Starbucks was not well-known in Korea when the rival coffee provider (who uses a similar logo) registered its trademark. MVS previously blogged about the appeal here. This case, along with the ongoing saga between […] Continue Reading →
Cisco sues Apple over iPhone trademark Apple, the company that dominates the digital music player market with the iPod, announced this week at the annual MacWorld show in San Francisco that Apple will be entering another lucrative consumer electronics market: the mobile phone. Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced his company's newest offering: the iPhone. Apple's stock increased 10% just from the […] Continue Reading →
Sioux Falls inventor files one millionth electronic trademark application with USPTO The USPTO recently received the one millionth trademark application filed electronically via its TEAS system. It took just under ten years for the one millionth electronic application to be filed, as the TEAS system first became available in November, 1997. The applicant, Donald Junck of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was flown out to the USPTO […] Continue Reading →
Anheuser-Busch and Budvar reach agreement, but trademark fights continue United States brewer Anheuser-Busch, maker of Budweiser beer, has reached an agreement with Czech brewer Budejovicky Budvar, to distribute Budvar's Czechvar lager. This agreement is interesting because the two companies have been involved in trademark disputes around the world over which company has the right to use the name "Budweiser." Budvar's beer is sold as […] Continue Reading →
MIT Offers Free Course Materials on United States Copyright Law The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is offering an introductory course to Copyrights via its OpenCourseWare website. The website describes the course as “an introduction to copyright law and American law in general.” Topics covered include: 1) Structure of federal law 2) Basics of legal research 3) Legal citations 4) How to use LexisNexis? 5) […] Continue Reading →
Celebrities are inventors too Inventors come from all walks of life, so it shouldn't be a surprise that celebrities are inventors also. One blogger used the new Google patent search to search for famous names as inventors of patents. Click here for the list of patents he discovered. Figures from a few of my favorites after the jump. Click […] Continue Reading →