Get free answers to your Intellectual Property legal questions from lawyers in your area.
answered on Dec 18, 2024
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 
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answered on Jun 1, 2024
When a trademark application like "secret sauce" is marked as "602 - Abandoned-Failure To Respond Or Late Response," it means the previous applicant did not complete the necessary steps to secure the trademark. This opens up the possibility for others to apply for it.... View More
answered on May 26, 2024
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
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answered on May 28, 2024
I agree with the other attorney's analysis, but I would add that it appears that maybe it was abandoned because the applicant did not have an adequate response showing why its mark would not cause confusion with an existing trademark registration for IKE'S DIRTY SECRET SAUCE, which is... View More
answered on May 15, 2024
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
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answered on May 18, 2024
Yes, you can likely use the name "M.A.S.H" for a short story even though "M*A*S*H" is trademarked. Here's why:
1. Avoiding trademark infringement: As long as your story is not about a mobile army surgical hospital and doesn't use elements or characters from the... View More
is it only through the USPTO TESS and copyright.gov web sites? specifically the costs involved what are they and what would be the timeline of start to completed if everything is successful
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answered on May 9, 2024
To protect a phrase, you can consider trademark registration through the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) or copyright registration through the U.S. Copyright Office. Here's a breakdown of the legal hurdles and costs involved:
Trademark Registration (USPTO):
1.... View More
is it only through the USPTO TESS and copyright.gov web sites? specifically the costs involved what are they and what would be the timeline of start to completed if everything is successful
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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
I’m starting a YouTube channel and want to sell my own merchandise through print on demand. Shirts and hats with my logo and YouTube name on it. I don’t have a bunch of upstart money, so do I have to register a trademark through the US government before I can sell?
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answered on Mar 6, 2024
In the US, formal trademark registration is not a prerequisite for selling products bearing your logo or brand name. Consider these points:
Common Law Trademark Rights: Your use of a unique logo and brand name in business operations instantly grants you common law trademark rights. This... View More
I’m starting a YouTube channel and want to sell my own merchandise through print on demand. Shirts and hats with my logo and YouTube name on it. I don’t have a bunch of upstart money, so do I have to register a trademark through the US government before I can sell?
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answered on Mar 4, 2024
No, you are not required to register a trademark through the US government before you can sell merchandise like shirts and hats featuring your YouTube name or logo. Trademark registration offers legal protections, including the exclusive right to use the mark in connection with the goods or... View More
If the products looks similar but both were designed based on prior art teachings. While the accused product is not using any logos/name/images of the first. And the accused product has feature(s) to specifically tell the ordinary observer (both visually and in description) that there is this... View More
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answered on Feb 25, 2024
Yes, it is possible to sue for design infringement even without having a design patent. Design infringement claims can be based on various legal grounds, including trade dress, copyright, and unfair competition laws. However, the success of such a lawsuit would depend on the specific circumstances... View More
Do I need to get a trademark or register it?
answered on Dec 4, 2023
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
Do I need to get a trademark or register it?
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answered on Dec 5, 2023
You have a couple of options for protecting your original work, as described. The first would be to copyright the book, or books, you write. You could do them individually (single author, same claimant, one work, not for hire) and pay the $45 dollar e-copyright registration fees for each.... View More
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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
There are many online content creators in the finance and investing space. With so much information and so little time, I want to summarize videos and publish them, along with metadata and trend/sentiment analysis, to a website that may be monetized through ads and/or subscription for custom feeds.... View More
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answered on Aug 29, 2023
Summarizing other people's content and monetizing it could potentially expose you to copyright infringement claims under federal law, especially if the summaries capture the essence or key elements of the original work. The Fair Use doctrine allows for limited use of copyrighted material... View More
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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
answered on Jul 8, 2020
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
I have a store on eBay and noticed that other sellers are using them without my permission and now I found a company using my photos .. its frustrating because I took the time, patience, and dedication to take each photo and for someone to just use them is not fair, I've tried contacting the... View More
answered on May 26, 2020
Without doing anything special, you already own the copyright in your photos. That being the case, you could proceed under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to notify the internet service provider where the photos are being displayed. Check the Terms of Use of the ISPs to follow the... View More
They have whole different lyrics just the same beat and they copyrighted my song causing me to unwillingly forfeit all future revenue I may make and I was wondering what I can do about it legally
answered on Feb 8, 2020
Unsure, as your information does not exactly make sense. The person who wrote the beat owns the copyright to that part, you would own the copyright to your lyrics. The other person would own the rights to their lyrics.
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