Hello. I hate to say it, but this goes WAY beyond the kind of legal advice you should be seeking on an online question and answer forum. It's not really even clear whether you are the plaintiff or defendant, and it's nearly impossible to address issues relating to dismissal without a... View More

When a person dies in Arizona without a will, they are considered "intestate." The estate is then divided up according to a set of rules set by statute, with a hierarchy of who gets what based upon the familial relationship (wife, kids, grandkids, parents, siblings, etc). If married,... View More

Short answer: yes. The rule for analyzing infringement is to first correct any spelling errors or unusual spellings before doing the analysis. So, for example, "shooze" would first be converted to "shoes," and "2legit" would be converted to "too legit."... View More

Hello. You are experiencing first hand why these cut-rate online legal services are such a huge problem (and, I should add, how attorneys who do this kind of work often end up getting a fair amount of business trying to clean up all of the problems caused by these services.

Anyway,... View More

If you are talking about a federal trademark registration with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, understand that the process usually takes around a year or more. When you go to the USPTO website (www.USPTO.gov) you can search for your mark and it will show the status there. What you want to... View More

The pertinent question to ask when analyzing possible trademark infringement is whether or not there would be a reasonable likelihood of confusion between the two marks. So, ask yourself if leaving off the exclamation point would make it so a potential customer would not be confused that your... View More

The one thing you need to keep in mind is that, while registration is important, the rights to a trademark arise from the actual use of a mark in commerce in conjunction with particular goods and/or services. As such, you will need to be careful to determine whether or not they are using their... View More

That's a lot for the actual damages involved. What state are you in? I've handled a lot of IP infringement cases (on both the plaintiff's side and the defendant's), and we usually work out more favorable settlements than that.

***Please note the important disclaimers... View More

If a person has a legitimate basis for objecting to a trademark application filed by another, there are a couple of approaches that can be pursued. One is to contact the other applicant and attempt them to abandon the application based upon whatever basis there is for objection. Another is to... View More

Understand that the actual rights to a trademark arise from the first actual USE of the mark in commerce in conjunction with goods and/or services. Registration then provides a large set of enhanced rights and options for enforcement, but it is the actual use that triggers the initial rights. As... View More

With trademarks, the association between your mark and a PARTICULAR type of goods and/or services is a critical element. As such, you have to pick which particular goods and/or services you are going to use the mark with, and then actually use the mark in conjunction with the offering or sale of... View More

Sounds like you could use some clarification about how all this works.

First off, a trademark has no meaning, value or significance outside of the products and/or services with which it is used. You can't criticize, as one example, "Orange Turtle" as a possible trademark... View More

Hello. You actually haven't provided what YOUR logo is, so it's impossible to compare the two.

Hello. I've answered a very similar question on here before. First off, the primary issue with regard to using any trademark is as to HOW you use it. If somebody has a trademark that they use in conjunction with their sales of baked goods, and somebody else wants to use the same or similar... View More

The standard that applies in all possible infringement analysis is always whether or not there is a reasonable likelihood of confusion as to the source of the goods and/or services. So, if consumers see air fresheners that resemble beer hops, is there a reasonable likelihood that they might be... View More

The rights to any particular trademark do not actually arise from registration, but from actual use of the mark in commerce in conjunction with the sale or offering of goods and/or services. As such, it is possible to hold valid rights to a trademark without ever registering the mark, or without... View More

The question when comparing an existing trademark to a potentially infringing one is always this: is there a reasonable likelihood of confusion? So, if a consumer sees one mark, is it reasonably likely that they might believe it to come from the owner of the other mark? As part of this analysis,... View More

There are really two answers to this question (if we limit the discussion ONLY to federally registered marks, not ones registered with any state agency). First, there is the term of the trademark rights themselves, and then there is the term of the registration. The two are different. The rights... View More

IF you are talking about a federal registration with the USPTO, then an indication of abandonment for failure to respond usually means that an office action was issued and not responded to during the time for response. An office action is correspondence from the PTO raising a problem of some sort... View More

First off, the primary issue with regard to using any trademark is as to HOW you use it. If somebody has a trademark that they use in conjunction with their sales of baked goods, and somebody else wants to use the same or similar mark with the sale of sailboats, the two marks are likely to be... View More