| Choosing a Protectable Trademark |
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| The spectrum of trademark distinctiveness goes from fanciful marks, which are very protectable, to generic trademarks, which are not protectable. In trademark usage, words can be classified according to the degree of their distinctiveness. The right to protection of a trademark comes from its use to identify the product. When choosing a protectable trademark it should be highly distinctive. Choose trademarks that are fanciful, arbitrary, or suggestive because they are considered distinctive enough to function as trademarks.More... |
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| Reissue of Patents |
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| Once a patent is issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the patent is essentially final; however, if an error is found in the patent as issued that affects the scope or validity of the patent, a patent holder may seek a reissue patent, provided that the error was not made with deceptive intention. Errors that may warrant the reissue of a patent include a defective specification, a defective drawing, or any other problem that causes the patent to represent more or less than the patentee had a right to claim in the patent. If the patent as issued is narrower than the patentee had a right to claim, the patentee has failed to obtained the full amount of patent protection to which he or she was entitled. If the original patent is broader than the patentee has a right to claim, the entire patent may be vulnerable to a challenge to its validity in an infringement action. By broadening the claim or properly circumscribing it, as the case may be, the reissue patent allows the patentee to improve the ability to enforce his or her patent rights.More... |
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| Trademark Fair Use |
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| A party is entitled to use a trademark in such as way as to describe the qualities that a mark represents as long as the manner of use of the mark is not as a trademark but only used in a descriptive sense. Fair use of a trademark occurs when a defendant uses a descriptive trademark of another party to describe the defendant's own product. This is the fair use defense set forth in the Lanham Act that provides: More... |
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| Copyrights and Fair Use |
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| A copyright is a property right granted by federal law to authors or creators of original works such as writings, art, music and sound recordings, performances, photographs, movies, and the like. The copyright holder has the exclusive right to reproduce or copy the work, distribute or sell the work, or perform or display the work publicly. The copyright holder may also authorize others to use the work in those same ways.More... |
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| The Lanham Act section 43a |
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| The Lanham Act contains the federal statutes governing trademark law in the United States. The Lanham Act is the federal trademark law that provides a national system of trademark registration and protects the owner of a valid trademark against the use of similar marks if any confusion might result. The Lanham Act is not the exclusive law governing U.S. trademark law because both common law and state statutes also control some aspects of trademark protection. The common law cause of action on which section 43(a) is based is called passing off or palming off of goods and occurs when a producer misrepresents his or her own goods or services as those of another producer. More... |
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