Trademark

THE APRIL FOOLS’ STUNT I DIDN’T DARE PULL


This one goes back more than a few years, but it’s being resurrected because the issues are timeless, and it’s a little amusing looking back when I was just a bit feistier, at least in print.  Email me if you have a good guess as to what year it first appeared. It was so tempting, but I didn’t dare poke the giant beast, even though I could have gotten away with it,  [...]

LET’S GO BRANDIN’!


How to Pick Trademarks That Help You Sell, and Won’t Get You Sued. One of the most fun parts of my law practice is helping clients pick trademarks.  I don’t charge extra if I come up with an idea you love enough to use on a new product, or for your new company.  I always promise that some day when my portfolio of successful brand picks is impressive enough, I’ll put  [...]

HOW TO GET TOP DOLLAR FOR YOUR COMPANY IN FIVE YEARS


Sometimes, I know when clients have been reading this newsletter.  Sometimes, I’m blown away to see something I wrote about years ago drive a client’s strategy. I just took a call from a client who told me they were getting ready to sell their company, and could we see about resurrecting some old trademark registrations they had earlier decided to let drop to save the  [...]

REMEMBERING THE REMINGTON ROYALTY LESSON


Too Big to Fail? Remington’s bizarre “Brother, can you spare a dime?” Campaign It was ten years ago that I wrote about one of our industry friends playing an interesting voicemail at the SHOT Show. Consider all that has changed since then. These friends are innovators, with some valuable patents in their portfolio. Because Remington liked one of their inventions, they  [...]

WHEN TRADEMARK ATTORNEYS GO OVERBOARD


BRANDING STRATEGY FOR MY NEW PRODUCT Just a mock-up, but getting real. Finally, I can now reveal how a trademark attorney picks brands, and even goes a bit overboard to maximize the potential value of the venture.  It’s all about my hex key tool invention concept I wrote about in August. To recap, I used to get irritated with needing two Allen wrench sets and  [...]

HOW TO PROTECT “COOL”…


HOW TO PROTECT “COOL” TWO FAMILIAR WAYS TO PROTECT PRODUCT DESIGNS, PLUS A THIRD WAY YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF AND CAN UNDOUBTEDLY AFFORD. Everyone wants a patent. It’s perfectly logical to want to protect a new product.  Technical innovations help set you apart in a crowded marketplace and a patent prevents anyone else from offering your innovation for 20  [...]