Heitner Legal
We love a recent article written by Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times. Titled, Branded or not, Raptors teammates sport their own signature gear, Woike looks at how various members of the Raptors are taking branding into their own hands, with some going the extra step to ensure that their marks are protected. One athlete featured in […]
Typically, each party must pay its own attorney’s fees in litigation. The exception is when a contract contains a prevailing party clause or a statute provides that the prevailing party is entitled to a reimbursement of reasonable attorney’s fees. One such statute is the Lanham Act, which permits an award of reasonable attorney’s fees only […]
What happens to a trademark licensing agreement when the licensor files for bankruptcy? It is an issue that was just reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Mission Product Holdings v. Tempnology. The highest court held that filing for bankruptcy does not deprive the licensee of its rights to use the licensed trademark. […]
The rock band Guns N’ Roses has been around since 1984 and is a known name in the music industry to just about everyone in the United States. While the band members have spent most of their lives creating and performing music, they are now going to be occupied with litigating a trademark infringement lawsuit […]
We have been asked by many clients whether we can assist them with registering trademarks connected to the sale of cannabis and cannabis-related goods and services. In the past, we needed to be very creative to push applications through to registration. Now, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) may be making things a bit […]
MomoMilk LLC, the owner of trademark registrations to the word mark “MILK BAR” and design marks for a stylized versions of “milk,” has filed a federal lawsuit against Milk Bar, LLC in Illinois. The plaintiff claims that the defendant has infringed on its trademarks based on the defendant’s use of a confusingly similar stylized design […]
“Guns Up” is a slogan and hand signal used by Texas Tech University, originally as a way to counter the “Hook ’em Horns” symbol shown by the Texas Longhorns. It has grown in prominence to the point that the signal is often used as a victory sign at Texas Tech athletic events.
Myth: Filing one trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a mark and receiving a registration will protect that mark for use with all goods and services.
In some trademark cases, the plaintiff sues the defendant for trademark infringement based on what is considered to be a reverse-confusion theory. This means that the plaintiff believes that consumers will mistakenly believe that the defendant is the source, affiliate or sponsor of the plaintiff’s product or service.
We do not always post about our victories in obtaining trademark registrations with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, but it is fun to highlight some of the more interesting success stories. Below are a couple of our more recent registrations, one for a professional basketball player and another for a sports betting handicapper.