Balough
December 18, 2020
(December 18, 2020) An attempt to boldly go where no mash-up of Dr. Seuss and Star Trek had gone before was squashed by the Ninth Circuit. ComicMix LLC created a mash-up using the Star Trek characters and Dr. Seuss’s works Oh, the Places You’ll Go! (“Go!”), How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, and The Sneetches and […]
Balough
July 1, 2020
(July 1, 2020) A generic name combined with “.com” may be trademarked, the United States Supreme Court says, rejecting the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) broad rule that combining a generic term with “.com” cannot be registered as a trademark. “Booking.com” sought to trademark the name of its website name, which is an online […]
Balough
December 10, 2019
(December 10, 2019) Broke Ass Phone (“BAP”) will be able to put its registered federal trademark on its sign in Broadman, Ohio, following an appellate court reversal of a denial of its application for the sign because it contained an obscene word or word of immoral character. A zoning inspector for Broadman Township in Ohio […]
Balough
August 12, 2019
(August 12, 2019) If a competitor uses your trademark to describe its own product, then you might not have an action for infringement of the mark. Trademarks are protected because they are an indicator of the source of the product. If a registered mark is used descriptively and not as a trademark by a competitor, […]
Balough
June 24, 2019
(June 24, 2019) The Supreme Court struck down the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) ban against registering marks that are “immoral” or “scandalous” because the restriction violates the First Amendment. The court found the USPTO erred in denying a trademark for FUCT for clothing. Under the Lanham Act, the USPTO may not register marks […]
Balough
March 17, 2019
(March 17, 2019) Dum Dums spent $220,000 and 20 months to redesign its packaging in 2011, resulting in an increase in its share of the lollipop market. Its rival Charms Mini Pops took only five months and ignored its usual third-party consultant to come up with a package using elements of the Dum Dums’ package, […]
Balough
June 19, 2018
(June 18, 2018) Gatorade Company’s slogan “Gatorade the Sport Fuel Company” does not infringe on Sportfuel, Inc.’s trademark “Sportfuel” because Gatorade’s use merely describes the types of products sold and does not signify the source of the products, a federal judge ruled. Sportfuel, Inc., a Chicago-based sports nutrition and wellness consulting firm founded in 1993, […]
Balough
June 20, 2017
(June 20, 2017) The United States Supreme Court has found that the Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) prohibition against registering trademarks that may disparage or bring into contempt or disrepute any persons is unconstitutional. The PTO denied registration for “The Slants” by a rock group comprised of Asians. The trademark was rejected by the PTO […]
Balough
May 18, 2017
(May 18, 2017) Even though the public may use “google” in a generic sense with regards to internet search engines, that fact alone does not suffice to cancel Google’s trademarks. The Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for Google against a party who argued that Google was viewed by the public as generic, thus no longer […]
Balough
December 8, 2016
(November 15, 2016) The question of how aspiring chefs can use trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets to protect their valuable recipes and presentations was the focus of a presentation by Balough Law Offices, LLC to the Chicago Bar Assn.’s Creative Arts and Food Law Committees. Cheryl Dancey Balough explained that while recipes themselves are not […]
