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Brand Aid: Successful Marketing with a Generic Word?
–Dan Kelly, Attorney Sometimes, when times get tough, a business just cannot afford all the expensive branding, design, marketing, and legal consultants . . . or maybe a business has cornered a market...
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Texas Toasted? How to Slice the Trademark Spectrum of Distinctiveness
v. Texas Toast is the generic name for a type of bread, you know, the big thick double-cut slices. Anyone can call their bread Texas Toast if that is what they are selling, and, by the way, it...
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Best Buy, Resurrected From the Trademark Graveyard?
As a trademark type, something struck me as odd about the Best Buy logo image appearing on the brand new outdoor baseball scoreboard at Target Field, during the Minnesota Twins recent home opener...
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When is a Shuffle Not an iPod Shuffle?
–Dan Kelly, Attorney Here is a brand baiting gem spotted yesterday at a website called Daily Checkout: Unremarkable? A deal, you say? Well, the following disclaimer appears twice in the sidebar...
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Subway’s “Footlong” Trademark Infringement Claim a Real Stretch
This scene from the Minnesota State Fair reveals how the “About a . . . Foot Long Hot Dog” stand is a “State Fair Taste Tradition. . . .” With respect to the name, I have always believed that the...
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Duck Duct Debate
–Susan Perera, Attorney Every once in awhile I run across a product and find myself wondering… why did they name it this? I recently ran across the Duck Tape brand shown below. My first reaction was...
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BAND-AID, TM Death by a Thousand Cuts?
If you were a Band-Aid brand adhesive bandage, and you were cut, would you protect yourself? Brent, sorry I couldn’t help myself, I’m still enjoying your Louis Vuitton waffle-maker post. With that...
View ArticleSheetz Flushing Subway’s Footlong TM Hope?
It has been almost six months since oral argument before the TTAB over the question of whether the word “footlong” is a trademark or a generic name for a type of sandwich. What type of sandwich you...
View ArticleTie Goes to the Brand or Generic Name?
Boys baseball occupied a fair portion of my evenings last week and this past weekend, a game where almost everyone has at least heard: The tie goes to the runner (when it comes to running the bases...
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Millions of False TM Notices to Remove?
A hot dog is a type of sandwich, and “footlong” denotes a type, category, or class of sandwiches (those measuring about a foot in length), making ”footlong” a generic term and part of...
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A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
We continue to anxiously await the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s decision in Frito-Lay North America, Inc. v. Princeton Vanguard, LLC, especially given the Board’s recent genericness ruling in...
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Inventing a Generic Category Name
MillerCoors is currently running this Lite Beer ad, promoting the limited edition original can, and taking credit for inventing the light beer category, way back in 1973. It is a great reminder that...
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Packaging that Kills (a Trademark)
Killer packaging is a good thing. It can increase sales and establish a stronger emotional bond between the consumer and the product brand. The current packaging of Snack Factory’s Pretzel Crisps...
View ArticlePretzel Crisps Genericness Decision Appealed
A couple of months ago you will recall that the USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) held ”Pretzel Crisps” generic for pretzel crackers. Here are links to our previous coverage of the case:...
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Googling Doesn’t Break Google Trademark
Our friend Professor Eric Goldman, over at his Technology and Marketing Law Blog, reported earlier this week that the Google trademark has survived a genericness attack by a fellow named David Elliot....
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Owning the Visual Identity of a Generic Word
Unless you have created a highly stylized, distinctive, graphic representation of a generic designation, perhaps something like the Miller Lite script, don’t bother trying to own or enforce it: Most...
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Subway Drops Footlong TM from Advertising
The last time I was at the airport I snapped this photo showing how Subway finally appears to have dropped its use of the TM symbol in association with the word FOOTLONG: As you will recall, Subway had...
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Will Marketing Pitfall Lead to Sand Pounding?
Preparing to send off to college my two oldest sons, led us to Ling & Louie’s Asian Bar & Grill’s rooftop patio on Minneapolis’ Nicollet Mall last week, and we found an interesting menu item....
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UPS: Word, Acronym or Initialism Trademark?
Life is full of ups and downs. The world of trademarks often tends to mirror life. Yet, for the time being, the USPTO currently recognizes only one brand and mark as living solely on ups: As it turns...
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What’s a Peppadew?
We recently checked out a new restaurant in Minneapolis’ growing North Loop area, called Red Rabbit, what a great spot: The menu cleverly refers to the salad options as “Rabbit Food” — and the...
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