Sporting apparel and equipment manufacturer Under Armour, has rapidly grown into a heavy hitter in the athletic gear market. Started in 1996 by University of Maryland football player, Kevin Plank, out of the back of his car, the company has grown to challenge the likes of Nike and Adidas. Part of the company’s explosive growth has been due to marketing and branding. Before hitting the big time, Plank wisely filed a trademark application on Under Armour in 1996, which received a trademark registration in 1999. Armed with this trademark registration and a desire to protect the brand, Under Armour recently filed a lawsuit against Salt Armour, Inc. for trademark infringement. Continue reading “Under Armour Sues Salt Armour”
Category: Trademark Law
Judge Rules Pizza Flavor Cannot Be Trademarked
New York is well known for many popular pizza restaurants. One restaurant, in particular, New York Pizzeria, Inc. (NYPI), believes that what separates it from all the others is a distinctive taste that customers immediately recognize. According to NYPI, a unique blend of ingredients sourced from proprietary distributors creates its distinguishing flavor. And when its former president left to create a rival restaurant, Gina’s Italian Kitchen, NYPI noticed that Gina’s pizza tasted a little too familiar. That’s why NYPI filed a federal lawsuit claiming that Gina’s violated the Lanham Act by copying NYPI’s pizza flavor. But can a flavor be protected by a trademark registration? Continue reading “Judge Rules Pizza Flavor Cannot Be Trademarked”
Sak’s Fifth Avenue Threatens Snaks Fifth Avenchew
Carrie Sarabella must have a sense of humor. She is the entrepreneur behind SNAKS FIFTH AVENCHEW, an organic doggie treat manufacturer. The play on the brand Saks Fifth Avenue is pretty clever. The department store doesn’t see it quite the same way however, as it sent cease and desist letters to the New Jersey based Sarabella. This wasn’t enough to make Sarabella roll over though and it appears that Saks is now backing down from its challenge.
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PODS Awarded $62 Million Judgment against U-Haul in Trademark Infringement Case
U-Haul has been in the moving business for a long time, but a recent judgment shows that it wasn’t the first to use the term “pods” to refer to moving containers. That distinction belongs to Florida-based PODS Enterprises, which began using the term in commerce in 1998 and received a trademark registration on the term in 2005. U-Haul’s subsequent use of the term is proving very costly, as a jury ordered the company to pay PODS $62 million in profits and damages for infringing the PODS.
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Trademark Application Battle with Twitter Forces Twitpic Shut Down
Before 2006 to tweet was something only birds did. Now tweeting is pretty much ubiquitous. One of the 10 most popular sites on the internet, Twitter has changed culture and the way people experience the world. News outlets are typically no longer the first to break news, with eyewitnesses relaying near real-time updates through Twitter. With such widespread use, Twitter has become a highly recognizable brand. As such, the group is taking measures to protect its name and unfortunately for a former symbiotic partner, it may become a casualty.
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Hungry between Breakfast and Lunch? McDonald’s Files Trademark Application on McBrunch
Slumping sales have McDonald’s searching for something new and its recent trademark application may reveal what it has in store. In July, McDonald’s filed a trademark application on McBrunch. But does this mean we can count on an 11 AM menu? The fast-food giant is playing coy. When asked about its plans for the mark, the company stated it routinely files “intent-to-use” trademark applications and sometimes moves forward with them, and sometimes it doesn’t. So that leaves us with a resounding maybe.
Duck Dynasty Facing Trademark Infringement Lawsuit over Use of “My Favorite Color is Camo”
Duck Dynasty, the popular A&E television program, is big on camouflage. But the Dynasty crew may have overstepped its camo bounds when it proclaimed that “My Favorite Color is Camo.” This proclamation and use of the phrase on branded merchandise has recently led to a lawsuit. The Duck group is facing a trademark infringement challenge from a Florida company claiming Dynasty’s use of the phrase “My Favorite Color is Camo” infringes on its trademark registration.
Trademark Law: Cashing in on Hobbits – Fair Game or Foul Play?
The hugely successful movie franchise, The Lord of the Rings, picks up again when director Peter Jackson releases The Hobbit on December 14th, 2012. The profitability of the movies and all things related to Middle Earth are not lost on others looking to ride the momentum created by the new release. Global Asylum is a movie production company that specializes in “mockbusters”, low-budget movies that have similar titles and storylines to blockbuster movies and are released around the same time. This time around, Global Asylum intends to cash in on The Hobbit frenzy by releasing a film entitled Age of the Hobbits, three days before the release of the Jackson film (see story). So what’s the deal with these mockbusters? Is this fair game or foul play? Trademark law may be the deciding voice.
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