This will depend, in part, on how close your goods/services are to the goods/services of other companies using this term. You really should details of your case with a trademark attorney.

There are different costs involved, depending on the details. When filing a trademark application, you file in one or more “classes” (these are categories of goods/services), and the more classes, the greater the cost. There are also costs after filing of the application, which can vary... View More

If their trademark is registered, you can go to the USPTO’s search page here:

https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=searchss&state=4805:woa3i2.1.1

After you run a search for the mark, click on the trademark, then click the TSDR button on the upper left. Then scroll down... View More

This is a difficult one. It would be tough to establish you have copyright protection in the floral arrangement itself. Theoretically, you could, but temporary articles of nature like this are always tough. You’d face several hurdles: it needs to have a threshold level of creativity (i.e.,... View More

This question is really to broad to answer, and depends on a lot of details. But, if you are asking about a patentable innovation, and someone else contributed to this innovation during the hackathon, then that means you likely have at least on co-inventor. In that case, no, the email would... View More

If you know the name of the company that you think owns the patent, you will usually be able to find a copy of it. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has a search tool for patents here:

https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/static/pages/landing.html

This tool allows you to easily... View More

Now, when you say “plays golf,” do you mean someone that has played golf, or someone that plays the game respectably?

There is not really a mechanism for you to do this. You ask the patent owner to do it, but it is highly unlikely that they’ll be interested in doing so.

The assessment of trademarks rights is primarily (but not solely) governed by actual commercial use. The answer to a question like yours is highly fact-specific, and there is not enough detail provided in your description. You should really discuss the specifics of your case with a trademark... View More

It depends. Each trademark is registered in a particular class (or classes) and for specific goods or services. If the goods/services are similar, you may have difficulty. If they are sufficiently different, you may be okay. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you’d like to discuss further specifics.

The timeframes you’re discussing relate to copyrights, not trademarks. For a trademark, as long as the owner continues to use the name and continues to timely submit the proper renewal forms and fees, their protection does not expire.

To obtain an issued, enforceable patent, you would file a “utility” patent application. When you say ”the process 4 a patent,” are you referring to the preparation of this patent application, or the process of ultimately obtaining an issued patent (i.e., the back-and-forth with the patent... View More

This will depend on the details of your specific game, and it would require a professional search. When we do these, we hire a specialized searching company that performs a “clearance search” (in this case, they would search for those patents claiming a trading card game that are closest to... View More

If the owner of a federal trademark registration fails to submit the required paperwork/fees by a relevant deadline (including the sixth month grace period), it will go abandoned and will be considered a “dead” registration. If the registration is dead, you can file an application and obtain a... View More

Generally, no. When you trademark a logo, the coverage is limited to that particular design and designs that are “confusingly similar” to that design. The devil is in the details. Your trademark registration will not provide protection again “every” iteration of the character. But it will... View More