The Bulletin covered a story last week involving a trademark dispute between two Oregon businesses: a Bend restaurant and a Redmond jelly business.

Chris Justema—owner of Justema Enterprises, LLC—opened a restaurant in March of 2022 under the name JUSTY’S. Justema filed a trademark application with the USPTO for the word mark JUSTY’S. Mr. Justema’s nickname is apparently “Justy.” I have never heard of that nickname but it is interesting to see at least three trademark records with the USPTO for JUSTY’S marks owned by different Pacific Northwest-based businesses.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported last week that the NFL and Philadelphia Eagles cracked down on several Philadelphia artists and merchants for selling t-shirts and other apparel adorned with Eagles branding and artwork.

In case you were not aware, the Super Bowl was last night and the Philadelphia Eagles played the Kansas City Chiefs in Arizona. If you are waiting to watch the game, I will not spoil the outcome in this post.

After you file a trademark application, the USPTO might issue an office action. Office actions identify one or more issues standing between you and registration of your mark. Some issues can be insurmountable.

For example, some likelihood of confusion rejections are so strong that you will not persuade an examiner to withdraw the refusal. Other issues are less problematic and create no barrier to registration. Disclaimer requirements fall somewhere in between.

I listened to a news segment recently about Bob Ross and the impact of his work. You can listen to that segment here. Last week marked the 40th anniversary of the first episode of The Joy of Painting (i.e., when Bob Ross first hit the airwaves). Thank you Kat Lonsdorf (@lilkat_bigworld) and NPR (@NPR) for a great story.

Dr. Dre is a successful rapper, producer, and entrepreneur. His songs are wildly popular and recognizable. Many fans consider "Still D.R.E." to be his best song.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is a Congresswoman from Northwest Georgia.

Congresswoman Greene recently used the song "Still Dre" to soundtrack a promotional video. Without his permission, she acted like she forgot about D.R.E.

Fidelity and HSBC are among a growing number of large financial institutions to file trademark applications with the USPTO for various goods and services in the metaverse. Fidelity and HSBC filed several applications in late 2022.

This post is not intended to be political. Rather, I want to share some trademark tips using a recent news story (which may have been political). The story concerns President Trump’s request to register two phrases with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) after the 2020 election.

When I started this blog, I did not anticipate writing about Mariah Carey. Moreover, I did not expect to write about her three times in one month.

As a brand owner, you might discover that one of your competitors filed an application with the USPTO for a trademark that is confusingly similar to one or more of your trademarks.

Last week, I wrote about copyright issues in Christmas songs. In that post, I briefly discussed Mariah Cary’s hit, “All I Want for Christmas is You.” While researching, I discovered that a lawsuit was filed in June of this year against Mariah Cary—along with Walter Afanasieff (Carey’s co-author), Sony Music Entertainment, and Sony Corporation of America—for copyright infringement related to the song.

On a recent date night, Kristen and I visited one of our favorite places, Jazz, TX. Jazz, TX is a live music venue in San Antonio, Texas at the Pearl Brewery. It showcases the sounds of South Texas and includes Jazz, Blues, Big Band, Texas Swing, Salsa, and Latin Jazz.

I have had the pleasure and honor of working with many creative and highly intelligent people. It is not uncommon to receive a question along the lines of “I have an idea for a TV show or movie? How can I copyright it?”…

I get excited when I come up with neat taglines, slogans and a like. There is something about the flash of brilliance and cleverness that feels good. I believe other people share this sentiment from time to time. Some clients have shared these experiences and asked me if they can copyright a similar slogan, tagline or the like. Perhaps they want to put the tagline on a t-shirt.

Artists (a term I use broadly here to generally describe someone who creates a copyrightable work) often ask whether they need to register their work with the U.S. Copyright Office…

As I mentioned in my first blog point, there are differences and similarities between the various IP rights. For example, the duration of the various IP rights varies significantly…

I am excited to start this blog and to share some of the things that I think you should know about Intellectual Property so that you can make more informed decisions for you and your business…