Intellectual Property Blog

Buying a knockoff used to be something people kept quiet about. Now finding the best "dupe" can get you followers. Social media has taken the stigma out of copycat products and turned the search for cheaper alternatives into viral content. Competitors have noticed, and many are more willing than ever to imitate premium brands and pull shoppers their way. For brand owners, this creates a real legal problem.

Interbrand has just released its annual listing of the Top 100 Global Brands.

Another day, another case of a company not bothering to see how its new trademark translates into the native languages of its intended consumers.

In a landmark decision, released (coincidentally?) on the first day of the International Trademark Association’s Annual Meeting, the U.S. Supreme Court held, in American Needle, Inc. v. National Football League, that the NFL’s licensing activities are covered by Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act which prohibits “every contract, combination in the form of a trust or otherwise, or, conspiracy, in restraint of trade.”  As a result, the NFL will now be required to demonstrate, on remand, that such activities comport with the so-called “Rule of Reason.”

Since we created an Evolving Media & Technology Team here at KMK, I have been telling brand owners to proactively manage their presence on Facebook by creating an official, corporate, Facebook page and strategically selecting the fan pages and copycat pages to shut down.  After yet another “update” to its site late last week, Facebook has now made this kind of brand management exponentially more difficult for trademark owners.

Today, BMW announced that, beginning in June, customers can order its new “M” bicycle.  The bike, which you can see courtesy of Autoblog, is nice enough on the eyes.  But one wonders whether BMW has finally gone too far, indiscriminately slapping its “M” brand on something that is less than true to the “M” heritage.

Those of you following my blog (both of you) may have noticed that I’ve been suffering from a nasty case of writer’s block, as I haven’t posted anything for about 2 months.  Thankfully, I have been cured.  Lindsay Lohan is my muse.

If you are anything like me, while cleaning out your junk drawer this spring you will probably find numerous unused gift cards, given to you by various friends and family members last Christmas, or even on your birthday two years ago.  For me, the initial excitement of getting a gift card or gift certificate quickly leaves the mind once that gift card is stuffed into a drawer.  And if, like me, you often find those cards exactly one day after they “expire,” a new federal law may offer you (and me) some hope.

This is an update on my November 9^th post regarding new and (sometime not) improved logos adopted by various companies.  In that post, I talked about how much I didn’t like Pepsi’s new logo, which to me looks like a store-brand, generic logo.  Well, perhaps Pepsi agrees with me...

You may have heard that on Thursday, December 10^th, The North Face Apparel Corp. (home page here) sued 19-year old entrepreneur (and, apparently, amateur comic) Jimmy Winkelmann in a Missouri District Court for trademark infringement arising out of a parody Mr. Winkelmann created out of The North Face’s rather well known logo.