Trademark Quality Chat Webinar on Tuesday, March 14, 2017 12 noon - 1 PM ET

Trademark Alert

Webinar on Trademark Quality Review Program The USPTO’s Patent Quality Chat webinar series continues on March 14 from noon-1 p.m. ET with a guest chat on Trademarks and quality. Our chat will present insight into the Trademark Quality Review program, which reviews the work of trademark examining attorneys. During the webinar you can email questions about the Trademark Quality Review program to our speakers at patentquality@uspto.gov. Join the chat to hear our insight, ask your trademark questions, and suggest improvements to the Trademark Quality Review program. Enhancing the quality of our work and processes is part of the USPTO’s continuous quality improvement efforts in partnership with our stakeholders. Date Topic Speaker Tuesday, March 14 Noon-1 p.m. ET Guest Chat: Trademarks and Quality Presentation Slides (coming soon) Video (coming Soon) Kevin Peska Managing Attorney, Office of Trademark Quality Review and Training Donald Fingeret Senior Staff Attorney, Office of Trademark Quality Review and Training

Richmond-based Red Eye Cookie Co. gets sued over trademark issue by national cookie delivery chain; Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 1, 2017

Dean Seal, Richmond Times-Dispatch; 

Richmond-based Red Eye Cookie Co. gets sued over trademark issue by national cookie delivery chain

"Started by a University of Pennsylvania undergraduate out of his dorm room in 2003, Insomnia Cookies maintains more than 100 stores throughout the country, including locations in Richmond and Charlottesville, among others in Virginia.

According to the suit, Insomnia has used a distinctive design mark since its early days, which prominently features a crescent moon dotted with what appears to be chocolate chips, giving the impression of a cookie with a bite taken out of it.

Red Eye began in March 2014 on West Grace Street near Virginia Commonwealth University’s academic campus. It moved in August 2015 to its current location at 935 W. Grace St., roughly 240 feet from Insomnia Cookies’ own Richmond location, which opened in January 2015.

Red Eye’s logo also features a crescent moon, which is colored dark red.

Each company sells freshly baked cookies, baked goods, milk, coffee and ice cream, and both offer late-night delivery — typically to college students.

The lawsuit states that Insomnia and Red Eye “are very similar, if not identical” and continues that “the companies operate in the same markets; the companies target the same customers; the companies advertise and promote their goods and services in the same or similar media; and Red Eye is using one or more marks that feature a crescent moon design as the dominant design element of those marks.”

Toy giant Hasbro is trying to trademark the smell of Play-Doh; Independent, March 1, 2017

John Wadsworth, Independent; 

Toy giant Hasbro is trying to trademark the smell of Play-Doh

"While it is rare for smells to be successfully trademarked in the US, it is not unheard of. According to Mr Curtis, the first was a flowery scent used on yarn, registered in 1990.

Mr Curtis added that it is near impossible to trademark smells in the UK and EU, due to the difficulty of proving members of the public share recognition of a particular scent.

“What is a smell? How do you describe it? A smell is subtly different to different people,” he said."

DISNEY, LUCASFILM TRADEMARK MYSTERIOUS NEW STAR WARS TITLE; Comic Book Resources, February 28, 2017

Brett White, Comic Book Resources; DISNEY, LUCASFILM TRADEMARK MYSTERIOUS NEW STAR WARS TITLE

"Star Wars fans may soon become familiar with a new branch of the franchise, if a recent trademark filing is any indication. Max Palas of the site Star Wars Post reported that a trademark has been filed for the title “Star Wars: Rivals.”...

io9 did their own research and noted that Lucasfilm and Disney filed two trademark applications for “Star Wars: Rivals” on February 23, 2017. One application is for “education and entertainment services,” while the other covers, well, pretty much everything else..."

Breitbart News filed for trademark rights to term 'Big Gay Hate Machine' under Steve Bannon leadership; New York Daily News, February 28, 2017

Adam Edelman, New York Daily News; 

Breitbart News filed for trademark rights to term 'Big Gay Hate Machine' under Steve Bannon leadership

"Alt-right news website Breitbart, under the leadership of Stephen Bannon, filed to acquire the trademark rights to the term "Big Gay Hate Machine,” documents obtained by the Daily News show.

Breitbart News filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to trademark the offensive term on May 20, 2015, according to records from the office...

The application for the trademark was abandoned on March 4, 2016 and the right to the trademark on the term was forfeited."

Law Professors Address RCEP Negotiators on Copyright; Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF, February 24, 2017

Jeremy Malcolm, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF); 

Law Professors Address RCEP Negotiators on Copyright

"Next week the latest round of secret negotiations of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) kicks off in Kobe, Japan. Once the shy younger sibling of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the recent death of the TPP has thrust RCEP further into the spotlight, and raised the stakes both for its sixteen prospective parties, and for lobbyists with designs to stamp their own mark on the text's intellectual property and e-commerce chapters.

Our last analysis of RCEP pointed out some of the ways in which the then-current leaked text represented an improvement on the TPP, but how other parts of it—including those on copyright enforcement—repeated its mistakes and failed to seize opportunities for improvement. This week, over 60 copyright scholars released an open letter that sets out their views of what negotiators ought to do in order to address these problems...

The RCEP negotiators evidently haven't taken the failure of the TPP to heart, or they would be doing more to ensure that their negotiations are inclusive, transparent, and strike a fair balance between the interests of copyright owners and those of the public."

Copy This: Vatican Stakes Out Rights to Pope Francis' Image; Associated Press via New York Times, February 26, 2017

Associated Press via New York Times; 

Copy This: Vatican Stakes Out Rights to Pope Francis' Image

""The pope's image rights are no different from those of any other famous celebrity and so it's not surprising that the Vatican is giving notice that it will protect its (intellectual property) rights as necessary," said Nick Kounoupias, the founder of an intellectual property consultancy in London. "What will be interesting to see, however, is how vigorously these rights are pursued, given who the IP owner is.""