We’ve all seen local bakeries and supermarkets selling cakes decorated with the images of trademarked cartoon/movie/comic characters and not many people seem to care that the decorator may not have permission to use these images. But there’s also a difference between someone’s hand-iced Captain America cake and a company that uses movie stills and promotional art to make pre-fab cake frosting sheets. Thus, Disney, Lucasfilm and Sanrio — tired of seeing cakes featuring the unauthorized faces of Yoda, Iron Man, and Hello Kitty — have teamed up to sue two Michigan men for trademark and copyright infringement. [More]
trademark
Disney, Lucasfilm, Sanrio Sue Makers Of Counterfeit Marvel, Star Wars, Hello Kitty Cake Frosting
By 9.4.15
BMW Beat Google To The “Alphabet” Name And Website
By 8.11.15
Yesterday, Google announced a massive reorganization that will put the Internet giant and all its other side businesses under the umbrella of a new company called Alphabet. But don’t expect to visit Alphabet.com anytime soon, unless you want to buy a bunch of BMWs. [More]
Amazon Must Face Trademark Lawsuit Over Wristwatch Search Results
By 7.7.15
If Amazon doesn’t sell a specific product I’m looking for, should it simply tell me “Sorry, nothing here” or should it bring up a slate of other, possibly similar, competing products? To one high-end watchmaker that’s been involved in a four-year legal battle with Amazon, these questionable search results aren’t just an annoyance but constitute trademark infringement. And yesterday, a federal appeals panel said Amazon must face this trademark complaint in court. [More]
IMAX Demands Website Retract Story That Has Virtually Nothing To Do With IMAX
By 6.19.15
The folks at IMAX need to learn when to take a compliment. When someone name-drops your brand as an aspirational standard, you should smile and appreciate the respect. What you shouldn’t do is demand that a news website retract an entire story just because someone mentions your brand. [More]
Judge Rules That Artist’s Lawsuit Over “Angry Birds” Plush Pet Toys Can Move Forward
By 12.16.14
A Seattle artist suing a pet company for allegedly cutting her out of a deal to license a line of plush “Angry Birds” pet toys to Rovio, creators of the popular video game, has won a battle in her legal war. A federal judge has refused to dismiss her lawsuit, saying she’s made a case for her claim that she retained intellectual property rights in the “Angry Birds” trademark. [More]
Luxury Watch Makers Out To Stop Lookalike Faces For Smart Watches
By 11.25.14
Just like some street vendors make a living selling lookalike Cartier and Omega watches for cheap, some folks are selling — or even giving away — knock-off digital watch faces for Android-powered smartphones. And the watch companies are going after these people with the same zeal as they chase the “Cantier” and “Omego” sellers from sidewalks. [More]
Bakery That Never Used The Word “Cronut” Told To Stop Using The Word “Cronut”
By 10.24.14
While NYC pastry chef Dominique Ansel may have trademarked the word “cronut” to describe the cross-breeding of a croissant and a donut, he’s certainly not the only person to have made or sold them. Now his lawyers are sending cease-and-desist notices to bakers to get them to stop calling their creations “cronuts,” even if they’ve never used the word on their menus. [More]
PODS Awarded $62M In Trademark Infringement Suit Against U-Haul
By 9.26.14
What’s in a name? Well, if that name happens to be PODS about $62 million. That’s how much the storage and moving company was awarded in damages from a trademark infringement lawsuit against U-Haul. [More]
Trader Joe’s Loses Lawsuit Against Canadian Reseller Pirate Joe’s
By 10.7.13
Pirate Joe’s is a small retail store in Vancouver that sells only one line of merchandise: stuff purchased from Trader Joe’s and trucked across the border. People in Vancouver love Trader Joe’s, see, but the chain has no Canadian stores. Pirate Joe’s fills in the gaps for customers who don’t want to travel across the border but who really want pecan praline granola and chocolate-covered potato chips. [More]
Sears Sues Maker Of Sex-Enhancement Spray Over "DieHard" Name
By 4.14.11
For decades, Sears has been using the trademarked brand name “DieHard” on its car batteries and auto parts. Now the retail relic has filed a trademark infringement suit against a company that makes a sexual enhancement spray under the same name. [More]
Casey's General Stores Sues Subway Over "Footlong" Exclusivity Claim
By 2.14.11
Last spring, we wrote about Subway sending out cease-and-desist letters to sandwich shops that dared to use the term “footlong.” Now, Casey’s General Stores, a regional convenience store chain, has thrown down the gauntlet, challenging the fast food Goliath’s claim to exclusivity on the word. [More]
Nintendo Wants To Trademark "It's On Like Donkey Kong"
By 11.10.10
Even though people have been using the phrase “It’s on like Donkey Kong” for two decades, Nintendo has just gotten around to filing a request with the Patent and Trademark office to slap a little “TM” on those words. [More]
Dodgers Forget They Left Brooklyn In 1957, File Complaint Against Brooklyn Burger Over Logo
By 11.3.10
Fifty-three years ago, the Dodgers told the borough of Brooklyn to shove it up its nose with a rubber hose and lit out for the warmer climes of Los Angeles. Now they’ve returned — well, at least their lawyers have — to file a trademark infringement complaint against a local burger company for daring to use a similar font and the word “Brooklyn.” [More]
IHOP Sues IHOP Over IHOP Trademark
By 9.15.10
It’s a battle of biblical proportions as one IHOP — better known as the International House of Pancakes — fights another IHOP — the International House of Prayer — over the use of those four famous letters. [More]
George Lucas Says Your Actual Laser Looks Too Much Like Lightsaber
By 7.6.10
So apparently a lightsaber isn’t a laser, it’s a “blade of pure plasma energy emitted from the hilt and suspended in a force containment field,” but whatever, George Lucas says Wicked Lasers, based in Hong Kong, is violating LucasFilm’s trademark by selling lasers that look like lightsabers. [More]
NY Times Threatens Neighborhoodies' Hosting Company Over Herald Tribune Logo
By 6.18.10
On Thursday, we wrote about the NY Times Company threatening to sue custom-apparel company Neighborhoodies over its use of the logo for the long-dead New York Herald Tribune newspaper. And now that the ‘hoodies have made it clear that they have no intent on complying with the Times’ cease-and-desist order, the media giant has made an end-run around the shirt sellers, threatening legal action against the company that hosts Neighborhoodies’ site. [More]
NY Times Threatens Suit Over Logo For Dead Newspaper
By 6.17.10
The New York Herald Tribune hasn’t been published since the late ’60s and it would likely not be remembered by most were it not for the now-iconic image of original manic pixie dream girl Jean Seberg attempting to sell copies of the paper on the streets of Paris in the 1960 film Breathless (or À bout de souffle for those who insist on such things). Regardless, the New York Times company apparently has a pending trademark on the logo and will sue you if you try to use it. [More]
Subway's Lawyers Tell Rest Of World To Stop Selling "Footlong" Sandwiches
By 5.13.10
Subway has been sending legal letters to sandwich places informing them that Subway “has applied for the trademark FOOTLONG (TM) in association with sandwiches,” and instructing them to stop calling their sandwiches “footlongs” or else. [More]
