Intellectual property rights, for many people, don’t ring as true as tangible property rights. But those people don’t know just how influential and important intellectual property rights can be. Many famous entertainers make a lot of money simply because they own the rights to the artistic property they’ve created – in many cases, they make enough to live… Read More »
In deciding whether to file a trademark application to protect your domain name, the first step is to determine whether you use your domain name as a trademark. If your domain name is only used as the Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”) (i.e., http://www.example.com) to indicate an address on the World Wide Web, then you are not using your… Read More »
An important requirement when filing your federal trademark is showing that you are “commercial using” the mark you want to register. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) requires proof of “use” so that people do not attempt to register marks to just “reserve” them. 1. How to prove “use” of a trademark. If you are filing a… Read More »
So, you may have a website and you want to drive traffic – potential customers – to your site. One of the ways that you do that is by designating “keywords”. These are descriptive words that are associated with your website. When a potential customer enters words into a search engine, perhaps looking for a local florist by… Read More »
As a trademark attorney and the founder of Gerben Law Firm and TrademarkArmor.com, every day I hear from clients whose trademarks have been rejected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Many of these clients used one of the non-legal services for trademark registration offered via the Internet — with unfortunate results. Because I feel so strongly… Read More »