Archive for the 'Trademarks' Category

Mattel v. Bratz

Law.com posted an Associated Press article today about the latest status in this litigation. Bratz are a series of dolls that Mattel, the makers of Barbie, alleged infringed upon Barbie’s likeness and diluted their market share.

Apparently, the person who came up with the Bratz concept did so while working for Mattel, and then left the company and produced the dolls with MGA. As a result, litigation ensued, and a $100 million verdict was awarded.

As per the Law.com/Associated Press link, the federal judge upheld the $100 million award in favor of Mattel. Click here for the full link.

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Trademark Blog Link

While catching up on my blogging, I wanted to add another trademark blog that has some really great links and literature on them.

The TTAB Blog is one that is regularly updated and discusses cases as they come out

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Trademark Searches and Trademark Insurance

One of the things that I find helpful to discuss with clients is the need to have trademark insurance. I bring up this issue not because I wish to stress out clients, but because I think it’s important that a client be aware that there can be liability associated with their mark if for some reason their mark is found to have infringed on someone else’s mark. This is also a predominant reason why I encourage clients to have a professional search done by a company such as Thompson. The search can be costly at the outset, but in the long run, $500-$3000 (depending on the type of the search- whether the search is merely the name of the product, the search includes a phrase or the search includes a logo), it’s a small outlay to avoid litigation, when you figure that you have to have $50,000 in hand just to start litigation, and expect the cost to go up from there.

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Upcoming Conferences

There are some good intellectual property conferences that are coming up in the near future. Although the majority of the conferences are geared towards practicing attorneys, some of them are tailored also to law students and the general public.

The big one in Washington DC in December is the PTO day that the Intellectual Property Owners and Education Foundation. This year it’s on December 3, 2007.

The American Intellectual Property Law Mid Winter Institute starts around January 22 in Phoenix Arizona. They vary from year to year with regards to location, but it’s a nice opportunity to get away when it’s -40 in Alaska.

The American Bar Association puts on a solid conference in Washington D.C. in April.

And, for the individual inventors who want to get information straight from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, they offer traveling road shows throughout the year, but the big one is Inventor’s Day in September.

Also from an inventor’s perspective, the Hardware Show in Las Vegas is in May. This is a worthwhile opportunity for inventor’s to market their ideas to vendors and manufacturers.

For more information on any of them, please click on the links on the Blogroll.

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