That's a great question. I highly recommend that you hire a competent trademark attorney to run a clearance search before you launch the brand. That search should take approximately 1-3 hours, depending on how many results need to be reviewed. If you get the green light, you should also... View More

James L. Arrasmith Lawyers, want to be a Justia Connect Pro too? Learn more ›
answered on Aug 17, 2024

It is not legal for a company to sell a product as their own if they are merely reselling another company's product under false pretenses. This can be considered deceptive marketing and false advertising, which violates consumer protection laws. If they are misleading you by renaming the... View More

Hypothetically, under U.S. trademark law, if the trademark "secret sauce" has received the status "602 - Abandoned-Failure To Respond Or Late Response," it might be available for another party to secure.

Here's how one might proceed:

1. Check the Trademark... View More

The short answer is "most likely, yes."

The M*A*S*H trademark is limited to "a comedy television series."

The writers of that TV series will have a copyright for those TV scripts. So, you may not make a derivative story about any of the characters from that TV... View More

Alan Harrison Lawyers, want to be a Justia Connect Pro too? Learn more ›
answered on May 8, 2024

Attorneys will be reluctant to quote our fees in a public forum like this. Different attorneys may think that filing and prosecuting a trademark application is easy and should be cheap, or difficult and should be expensive. The USPTO will charge either $250 or $350 per "class" of goods or... View More

When writing a Children's Book the best protection is the copyright protection for the book. Be sure to once the final version of the book is complete to register the work with the Library of Congress. A copyright is not protected in court without being official registered work. The... View More

Jim Boness Lawyers, want to be a Justia Connect Pro too? Learn more ›
answered on Oct 2, 2023

This is not a copyright question, but really belongs in the realm of trademark law. Whether you can use any particular name for a product or business cannot be answered unless and until you do a thorough name clearance search. Yes, they do cost money, but the money spent upfront can be considered... View More

Jim Boness Lawyers, want to be a Justia Connect Pro too? Learn more ›
answered on Mar 3, 2023

Trademark signifies a source of goods or services. Unless your artwork serves as a logo (which can be trademarked), you would have to demonstrate to the USPTO that the elements of your artwork are distinctive and unique enough (secondary meaning) to qualify as a source of goods. This can be... View More

If a trademark registration has been cancelled, or if an application to register a trademark has been abandoned, that does not necessarily mean the trademark is no longer in use by its owner.

If the mark is still being used by its owner, but lacks a federal registration, your use for... View More

Depends on the use. Most of the time they would have a program to allow people to show their logos.

Consult with an attorney.

Maybe, it depends

You need to consult with an attorney to review your case and see what risks and options you have

Just because there is no federal US trademark on it does not mean it would be fair game. An analysis would be much deeper. Besides, there are three live marks for "the sorting hat" and one is for a bunch of printed material. If you look at that, let's say you could open a coffee... View More

Yes, it is very likely that the name you want to use, for the same products, would be considered confusingly similar, and thus unregisterable and infringing on the existing trademark.

Safest for you to choose another name ASAP - from what you say, any money you spend on marketing this... View More

Well, assuming the grace period has already expired and there's no common law use or federal registration(s)/pending application(s) for anything identical or similar in the relevant categories, then you could attempt to register the mark. I'd recommend hiring a trademark attorney to... View More

Generally speaking, a trademark does not have to be used or owned by a formal business in order to be deemed a valid trademark; commercial use by a sole proprietor may be deemed "use in commerce" for trademark purposes. If your question is referring to approval by a federal trademark... View More

Depends on how you are using it. Portlandia is a trademark for several items, see the USPTO's TESS search for details.

Yes, very very likely

It will depend on the category where the existing trademark is registered

You should work both with a brand consultant and an attorney to make sure your selected brand is both strong for your marketing purposes, as well as clear, available and has a good chance... View More

Yes, a trademark would be denied if it is used in the same industry segment. How wide one defines segment is a bit of an art itself, but the trademarked phrase (that's a pun) is "likelihood of confusion." To me, massage and spa are just too close.

If the trademark of the... View More

If the mark is indeed abandoned, then yes it is available for you to prepare and file a new application for registration. Note that your application will be treated as new, so you'll have to go through the entire registration process; it will not simply pick up from the previous registration.

Without searching, I would say that is almost guaranteed that it is. As to use, there are some uses that would be allowed under fair use.