Geographic trademarks have traditionally been of great importance for many business owners. This is especially true for business owners selling food products, non-alcoholic beverages, and alcoholic beverages, such as beers, wines and spirits. Disclosure of the geographic origin of some goods can often indicate to the prospective consumer significant information about the nature and [...]
An LLC operating agreement is an agreement between the member or members of the LLC and the LLC entity. Under the South Carolina Limited Liability Company Act, the members of both single-member and multi-member LLCs are permitted to enter into a written operating agreement to regulate the affairs of the company and the conduct [...]
Our law firm recently had the opportunity to address the issue of whether unauthorized use of a company's trademark in a television program or film could result in a claim of trademark infringement. Based on our research, we found that when unauthorized use of a company's trademark in a film or television program is [...]
From a trademark perspective, nothing serves as a stronger identifier than an individual’s personal name. But does this make personal names appropriate for trademark registration? Trademark law has always treated personal names differently. In the past, a person was free to use his or her name as a trademark and was not obligated to [...]
Since the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, hemp was removed from the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) list of Schedule I substances and will be treated the same as any other commodity crop. As such, when hemp plants are properly sourced, the cannabinoid (CBD) extracts are also legal. However, industrial hemp manufacturers must be [...]
Likelihood of confusion is the fundamental test of both state common-law and statutory trademark infringement. Trademark infringement of a federally registered trademark under the Lanham Act (32(1)(a), 15 USCA 1114(1)(a)) is defined as: "Any person who shall, without the consent of the registrant (a) use in commerce any reproduction, counterfeit, copy or colorable imitation [...]
YES! As of May 2017, Amazon’s Brand Registry program requires every brand owner to hold a registered (or pending) federal trademark that is associated with the product being sold in the Amazon marketplace. Amazon Brand Registry – Pre-Enrollment To enroll a brand in Amazon’s Brand Registry, a brand owner must provide the following information [...]
In our competitive free economy, copying and imitating business concepts and market trends in the public domain is the general rule, protected intellectual property (e.g., trademark, copyright, patent) is the exception. Copying and Imitation as Fair Competition "The Creative Commons proposed in 2010 the Public Domain Mark (PDM) as symbol to indicate that a work [...]
Trademark Unfair Competition It is basic public policy that free competition drives our economy. It follows that the "imitation" and “copying” of creative ideas and concepts is a very important part of a free market's success. Once ideas, concepts and inventions are in the public domain, they may be freely copied with limited exceptions. [...]
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office or USPTO) is setting or adjusting certain trademark fees, as authorized by the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA), as amended by the Study of Underrepresented Classes Chasing Engineering and Science Success Act of 2018 (SUCCESS Act). The changes will allow the USPTO to continue to recover the [...]
