Furniture sold in Illinois through Bon-Ton Stores was the subject of a recent trademark infringement case before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (Stone Creek, Inc. v. Omnia Italian Design, Inc., No. 15-17418 (9th Cir. 2017)). Phoenix-area furniture maker and retailer Stone Creek, Inc., obtained state and federal trademark protection…
When a company changes its logo to just the letter, “P” it’s hard to believe a single letter of the alphabet could be trademarked, but that’s what PayPal appears to be claiming. According to a recent trademark infringement lawsuit PayPal filed against Pandora, it’s more than just the letter. It’s…
Many people and organizations have long tried to get the NFL team known as the Redskins to change their name. The name is certainly offensive to most Native Americans and is a racial slur, but it’s not illegal to use it. The football team has maintained a trademark on the…
Streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and Spotify, are all wonderful for consumers, but they can create problems for copyright attorneys. In traditional retail, copyright holders are the only ones who maintain the right to reproduce and sell published content, including books, articles, videos, and music. But there’s a…
They say great minds think alike, but how do we determine the difference between thinking alike and stealing ideas? Thanks to copyright and trademark laws, some ideas are given a certain level of protection in this country, although the line between stealing an idea and having the same (or a…
The internet contains so much content, and social media allows it all to be distributed so far and so fast, that the question of who owns exactly what content online, and the extent of that ownership, is constantly being debated. Distractify and 22 Words are both sites that combine content…
With the economy still unsteady after the recession, more and more people are attracted to the idea of starting their own business. But one of the biggest challenges when doing that is making sure you have something unique to offer the market. For people who have spent most of their…
If a patent holder is allowed to control what happens to their patented products after the first sale, where would it end? Would they be able to take a cut from thrift shops? Garage sales? Lexmark International, a technology company that makes printers and ink cartridges for those printers, has…
What’s in a name? While some claim it’s nothing more than a word (or combination of words), some people work really hard to maintain their good name. So when something comes along that might threaten that good name, they’ll do whatever it takes to put a stop to the potential…
They say imitation is the highest form of flattery, but Louis Vuitton doesn’t seem to think so. The luxury brand has filed numerous trademark infringement lawsuits against small companies that parody the designer bags in some way. The lawsuits have been so far fetched as to have been called “bullying”…