Featured Articles

Tabasco Maker Sues Sailboat Charter Business For Trademark Infringement

Ryan Gile
November 07, 2008 02:11

As an avid user of Tabasco® sauce, I relish any opportunity to write about my favorite hot sauce and its famous (although some would say infamous) trademark. I previously wrote about the controversial history of the Tabasco® trademark here.On November 4, 2008, McIlhenny Company (“McIlhenny”), the...

Budweiser wins preliminary injunction against Buttwiper dog toy

Ryan Gile
October 21, 2008 07:01

Anheuser-Busch, Inc. (“Anheuser-Busch”), the famed brewer of “Budweiser” beer, brought a lawsuit for trademark infringement, unfair competition, and trademark dilution against VIP Products LLC (“VIP”) over VIP’s beer bottle-shaped dog squeeze toy called “Buttwiper.”Anheuser-Busch sought a motion...

NY Times Spotlights Growing Importance of Trademarks

Ryan Gile
September 04, 2008 07:26

The New York Times ran on article yesterday (link here) on the growing importance of trademarks as an intellectual property asset in an e-commerce world. (HT: Marty Schwimmer’s Trademark Blog).As the article notes, patents have often been the “stars” of the IP world – with trademarks relegated to...

Recent Articles

Trade Dress Protection does not Prevent a Competitor from Copying your Product

Ryan Gile
February 12, 2012 16:28

[Post by Mark Borghese]When a competitor makes an identical copy of your product, but sells the copy-cat product under a different brand name, do you have any recourse? What if your product and the competitor's product are so close they look as if they came from the same mold? Is that enough to...

The Blog Posts That Never Were

Ryan Gile
January 18, 2012 20:01

Oh how many times there have been where I wanted to blog about some interesting trademark story or legal development . . . only to have client needs get in the way.  So many blog posts started, and so few ever finished.  But that doesn’t mean I still can’t post a long list of them here –...

A Real Dog of a Trademark Case

Ryan Gile
January 18, 2012 14:21

People take their pets very seriously . . . and apparently the same is true with respect to their pet store trademarks. On January 13, 2012, Puparazzi Industries of America LLC (“PIA”) filed a trademark infringement lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of the District of Arizona against Puparazzi...

AMEX Wins Cancellation of BLACKCARD Trademark Registration

Ryan Gile
November 23, 2011 01:17

American Express (“Amex”), the issuer of the ultra-exclusive “Centurion Card” credit card (which is black in color and thus better known among the public as the “Black Card” -- pictured above), won a victory in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Black Card, LLC...

Recent Developments in Various Pending Trademark Cases

Ryan Gile
October 27, 2011 14:00

Back in the good ole days of 2009-2010 when I actually had time to blog, I posted about three particular lawsuits filed in the District of Nevada – each of which had significant developments this week (all reported on by VegasInc’s Steve Green).Arrow Productions Ltd. v. V.C.X., Ltd. et al, Case No....

GoPets v. Hise, Does Transferring a Domain Name Create a New "Registration" under the ACPA?

Ryan Gile
October 24, 2011 16:38

[Post by Mark Borghese]The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act ("ACPA") provides that a person is liable to a trademark owner when the person (1) registers a domain name, (2) in bad faith, (3) that at the time of registration was “identical or confusingly similar to” a distinctive...

Mystic Lodge Loses Trademark Battle with Mystic Lake

Ryan Gile
October 23, 2011 16:41

Mystic Lake Casino Hotel in Minnesota[Post by Mark Borghese]As first reported by Steve Green, Mystic Lodge casino in Henderson ("Mystic Lodge") lost its trademark dispute with the Mystic Lake Casino Hotel in Minnesota ("Mystic Lake"). This case was first discussed on this blog here. In a July 25,...