As a trademark owner, you may wonder whether it is possible for you to register trademarks without an attorney. You will be happy to hear that the answer is yes, although, as with all things legal, it is important to understand some of the basics in order to avoid more costly legal assistance down the road.
Continue reading “Do You Want to Register Trademarks without an Attorney?”
Previously in our Intellectual Property (IP) Best Practices series, we introduced step seven to maximizing your IP: discovering employee created IP. Please check back every Monday for the next part in this series.
Conducting regular intellectual property audits is integral to a successful IP strategy. A company is comparable to a living organism: if taken care of and provided the right nutrition, it grows. As companies scale, the same policies and compliance procedures that may have worked when the team consisted of a handful of employees, may not work in a larger company.
Continue reading “IP Best Practices: Regular Intellectual Property Audits, Step 8”
When we think about intellectual property (IP) we think about copyrights, trademarks, or patents. Trade dress is never the first thing that pops up during heated IP law debates (yes, at Traklight we have heated IP law debates). Trade dress is often overlooked but worth understanding. It is the protection afforded for a particular form of packaging used by a company that attains secondary meaning.
But a form of packaging that has been used by a company in the industry for a number of years alone cannot be protected under trade dress. Some uniqueness must be present and the packaging must not be functional. Furthermore, the packaging, coloring, so on and so forth, must confuse and mislead a consumer. Under Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act, trade dress is protected even if it is not formally registered. Although it is distinguishable from trademarks, service marks and trade names, a number of companies opt to trademark their trade dress, such as Coca-Cola, as it provides a number of additional benefits.
This is a guest blog by Ian Monat, Owner of Monat Technologies. When the catalytic converter was stolen off his truck he made it his mission to “protect vehicles across the US and UK from catalytic converter theft with the best security solutions on the market”: The Catlock.
One of my favorite 80’s comedies is ‘Coming To America’. The entire movie is hilarious but I always loved when Prince Akeem of Zamuda (Eddie Murphy) lands his first American job in Queens, NY at McDowells, a fast food restaurant that is a not-so-subtle rip off of McDonalds, and home to the ‘Big Mic,’ the ‘Golden Arcs.’
This makes for good humor on the silver screen, but when a McDowells sets up shop next to your McDonalds in real life, there’s nothing funny about it––especially when it means lost customers, decreased revenue, and time and money spent on litigation. Have you ever had a McDowells open next to your McDonalds? I have…
Last week’s Traklight on Forbes series provided a brief recap of the panel Mary sat on at SXSW V2V about alternative funding in the blog, “Alternative Funding From SXSW V2V: The Path Less Traveled.” Check back every Thursday for more content. Thanks for reading!
When pitching to investors to fund your startup, it’s important to understand a key aspect that may make or break the commitment to invest: your intellectual property (IP) strategy. In Mary’s latest Forbes blog, she reviews five key tips to becoming the savvy entrepreneur that investors are looking for, and ensuring that you’re able to answer their questions about your IP.
Continue reading “Forbes Update: 5 Ways To Be The Savvy Entrepreneur Investors Look For”
The word “bootcamp†doesn’t exactly conjure positive thoughts in the minds of most people. It’s associated with long days filled with exhausting exercises, followed by sleepless nights preparing for the next day. As pointless as it may seem while you’re going through it (and trust me, it does seem pointless), the ultimate point of bootcamp is to give you the knowledge and skills you need to succeed in future endeavors, whether that be a stint in the military or getting your business prepared for crowdfunding.
So what lessons can you hope to learn from the 3rd Annual Global Crowdfunding Convention and Bootcamp (GCCB)? Read on. . .
Continue reading “Learn How to Crowdfund (and More) at the 3rd Annual GCCB”
Previously on our Taking the Scary Out of Startup series, we discussed becoming an expert and paying it forward.
Competition is a Good Thing
When you do not have competition, you basically have no choice but to evangelize like a madwoman to get your company’s name and products out there.
Continue reading “Taking the Scary Out of Startup: Why Startups Succeed, Part 16”
The mobile app Angry Birds ranks as one of the most popular portable games of all time. Created by the Finnish game developers, Rovio Entertainment, it has been downloaded hundreds of millions of times and has inspired multiple iterations (including Star Wars and Transformers versions). For many, it’s a great way to pass the time if you’re stuck waiting in line or are a passenger on a road trip. The game has turned into a cash cow for its developers––you can find t-shirts, toys, and countless other merchandise with the brand on it. But for one woman, Angry Birds represents a misappropriation of her intellectual property (IP) and she is seeking to slingshot the matter into a courtroom.
Continue reading “Artist Sues Pet Toy Company Over Angry Birds Trademark”
Previously in our Intellectual Property (IP) Best Practices series, we introduced step eight to maximizing your IP: regular IP audits. Please check back every Monday for the next part in this series.
As important as protecting intellectual property (IP) is, it is just as important not to infringe upon someone else’s IP. Not only is it morally wrong tantamount to theft, the expense following an infringement suit can run high. This may seem painfully obvious, but a number of people who infringe do so unknowingly or believe they did not need a license or permission. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. Entrepreneurs and startups need to allocate funds wisely; IP litigation is not where you want to be spending your time and resources.
Continue reading “IP Best Practices: Don’t Infringe on IP Rights of Others, Step 9”
As a new Traker, I expected that in time I would be going to conferences and presenting what ID your IP and IP Vault are to people new to Traklight, but I didn’t expect for it to be so soon. Nonetheless, duty called for me to be present. Knowing that I usually psych myself out way too much and still am able to perform most of the time, I thought it’ll be fine. Plus, I thought it’d be cool to see what other people are creating and innovating (I wonder how many times people said “innovating†that day).
Going in to set up for the day at the AZ Innovation Summit was interesting because I haven’t seen the large Traklight poster before and it was a 2-person effort to put it all the way up. Soon after I finished meticulously arranging the stickers into a smiley face and the pens into a T shape, I went around the hall looking at other exhibitors’s booths, of which I noticed many were based around STEM education. Many of the attendees were also educators or worked at an educational/academic institution.
Continue reading “AZ Innovativation Summit 2014 Recap and My Experience”