New USPTO Rules Affect Application Procedures for a Trademark Registration

Effective January 16, 2009, applicants seeking a trademark registration should be aware of several rule changes when looking to register a trademark.   The “Summary of Miscellaneous Changes to Trademark Rules” summarize changes that can affect whether or not an applicant is able to successfully register a trademark.  Of particular note:

Vince Young Files Lawsuit Over Trademark Registrations

Vince Young, quarterback for the Tennessee Titans, has filed suit against three people who applied for "VY" and "INVINCEABLE" as trademarks.  Young argues that the trademark registration applications filed have prevented him from marketing deals, including one from Reebok.  The suit was filed in U.S. District Court on December 12 by three individuals described as friends.  If you are looking to register a trademark, it is important to have an availability search done by a lawyer familiar with the area.  You should contact a trademark attorney if you seek trademark registration.

Trademark Clearance Search: What Trademark Databases Should I Be Searching?

In today’s global marketplace, it is a virtual certainty that every brand describing a good or service has a trademark issues.  There is essentially a shortage of available words and increased tension between use of those brands in different countries. 

Trademark Attorneys: Recent Trademark Issues across the World Wide Web

Traverse Legal’s lawyers constantly monitor the latest information on the World Wide Web concerning Trademark and infringement issues. Here is this week's roundup:

Trademark Due Diligence Is Critical Before Going into Any Business

A recent domain dispute decision highlights the importance of doing a trademark clearance search before picking any business, brand or product name.  The Parking Page Dilemma: Frank Schilling loses chillibeans.com domain under UDRP, illustrates that both courts and arbitration panels expect companies to proactively ensure that they are not infringing on someone else’s trademark rights and/or prior trademark registrations before picking a domain name.

There are three lessons every domainer --  at least those who are willing to deal with the legal realities under the UDRP and ACPA  --  should take from this decision. (1) do a trademark search for every valuable domain within your portfolio, (2) exclude ads to the extent you can from being served up on your parked pages which include products in trademark protected areas and (3) consider excluding your most valuable domains from parking programs all together (they are worth more 'for sale' than from parked revenue).