Trademark

Here Is Adobe’s Attempt to Stop People From Using the Term “Photoshop” All Willy-Nilly

Poor Adobe. Along with everyone pre-eulogizing Flash, the only other property of theirs you can name—Photoshop—is in danger. Intellectual property danger. What Adobe’s been worried about for years is “genericization,” which is when the brand name becomes a synonym for a product. Which is how the Bayer-trademarked “aspirin” took over for the real name for…

10 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About Intellectual Property Law

How well do you understand copyright and trademark law? When you travel about the Internet or make art, do you know what you are and aren’t allowed to do, or do you have intellectual property myths stuck in your brain. We take a few claims we’ve seen time and again, and compare them to the…

Why Ikea Shutting Down Its Most Popular Fan Site Is a Giant Mistake

If you’re like me, you’ve spent countless hours surfing IkeaHackers, where Ikea fans send in their mods and hacks. You’ve also probably spent money at Ikea thanks to the site, which has inspired a DIY fervor among its fans. Which is why Ikea shutting down IkeaHackers this weekend over trademark claims is beyond boneheaded. IkeaHackers…

Google Is Struggling to Trademark the Word ‘Glass’

It won’t surprise you to hear that Google is desperately trying to trademark the world Glass—but it may raise a wry smile on your face when you find out that the U.S. government is taking exception to the idea. The Wall Street Journal reports that the US Patent and Trademark Office has objected to granting…

All Along, That Wasn’t Really Styrofoam

Dow Chemical Company would like to clear up a massive misunderstanding. STYROFOAM™, registered trademark, is not the foamy white stuff that makes up coffee cups or takeout trays or packing peanuts or egg cartons or even movie props. No, STYROFOAM™ usually comes in light blue sheets, and real STYROFOAM™ is used for building insulation and…

Apple has filed an application for an ‘iWatch’ trademark in Japan—which adds a little more weight to the rumors of Cupertino’s forthcoming wrist wear. https://gizmodo.com/an-iwatch-concept-has-never-looked-this-good-493109921

Apple Has Trademarked the Design of Its Stores

Yes, you are looking at a technical drawing of an Apple store. And yes, it does form part of an approved trademark request which means nobody can imitate Apple’s temples to tech. It might seem ridiculous to you that Apple has been trying to trademark a store layout—and certainly, the US Patent and Trademark Office…

Archaeologists banned from referring to ancient humanoids as “hobbits”

Homo floresiensis likely stood about 3’6″, making this prehistoric human roughly the average height of one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbits. For years, Flores Man has been referred to by the nickname “hobbit,” contributing to the species’ popularity. But one company that owns film rights in The Hobbit has decided that the archaeologists who discovered Homo…

This Is How Apple Swindled the iPad Trademark

Proview—the former owners of the iPad trademark in China—is suing Apple in California for “fraud by intentional misrepresentation, fraud by concealment, fraudulent inducement, and unfair competition.” Are they right? This is how Apple tricked them. You be the judge: • First, Apple contacted a company in Britain called Farncombe International. The managing director of this…

I Will Buy Your USB Shot Glass, Rad Power Hour Girl

Musician Ali Spagnola tours around the country righteously promoting collective binge drinking with her Power Hour Concerts. Then she got sued. Now she’s selling Power Hour USB Shot Glasses to pay her legal fees. Will you marry me, Ali? Or can we at least drink together? I usually think YouTube promotional videos ooze desperation, but…

Belarusian iFrukt Juice Laughs at Apple’s Puny American Trademarks

The juicemongers behind iFrukt either give zero fucks about the legal ramifications of ripping off Apple’s trade dress and using the come sue us! iPrefix—or maybe there just aren’t any intellectual property laws in Belarus? Infringement is delicious! The juice line, which features a our-juice-looks-like-laptops bitten logo, is made by Savushkin Product, which Copyranter cites…

Apple Probably Can’t Make Amazon Stop Saying “Appstore”

Apple’s been trying to stop Amazon’s use of “Appstore” since its inception. Unfortunately for them, the federal judge presiding over the case said that Apple’s difficulty in presenting evidence of customer confusion will likely lead to her denying the motion https://gizmodo.com/apple-doesnt-like-amazon-using-the-phrase-appstore-so-5784222 Really the only confusing aspect of all this is how Apple could possibly believe…

Apple Lawyer Squad Knocks Money out of White iPhone Kid

Remember the daring youth Fei Lam, who sold $130,000 worth of his own grey market white iPhone 4s long before Apple? Yeah, they weren’t pleased about that, and finally sued him. And, it looks like he’s already settled. https://gizmodo.com/ballsy-teen-who-sold-his-own-authentic-white-iphones-ea-5691512 Apple simultaneously dismissed its own filing against Lam and his family, which suggests they got a…

Sony Ericsson Sues Clearwire Out Of Fear That You’ll Mix Up Their Logos

Pop quiz: Which of these logos belongs to Sony Ericsson and which belongs to Clearwire? If you don’t know the answer, then you’ve justified the federal trademark lawsuit Sony Ericsson just filed. Apparently Sony Ericsson is concerned that Clearwire might confuse folks by using a logo consisting of a “sphere with swirl marks” in the…

Hey Apple, See If There’s An App for This

It amazes me that companies still have the bollocks to trademark plain English phrases. The worst thing is that they do it all the time. The latest case: Apple has been awarded a trademark for “There’s an app for that”. According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a trademark is a “word, phrase, symbol…

Facebook Is Trying To Register The Word “Face” As A Trademark

First Facebook didn’t want anyone else to have the word “book” in the name of his or her online community and now it doesn’t want anyone to have the word “face” either. http://gawker.com/5621935/facebook-no-one-else-can-be-a-book Facebook has apparently taken over the trademark application for “Face” from a company who operated a site called Faceparty.com and is trying…

Apple Wants To Trademark App Icons

Apparently Apple has filed to trademark its official app icons. The trademark motions cover the standard iPhone and iPad icon library as well as the iDisk and MobileMe Gallery icons in ridiculous detail. [TUAW via The Loop]

Google’s Trademark Application for the “Nexus One” Name Was Rejected

On December 10, 2009, Google applied for a trademark on the Nexus One name, but it looks like they’ve been rejected: https://gizmodo.com/google-applied-for-nexus-one-trademark-5427455 The application was refused because of “likelihood of confusion” with an existing trademark of the word “Nexus”, which was registered by Integra Telecom, a telecommunication services company, in 2008. Google’s intending to challenge…

Nintendo Files Trademark For Zii, Is It The Wii 2 Though?

If Nintendo’s follow-up to the Wii is actually called the Zii, I think that’s the first mistake right there. But could this mysterious trademark, filed in Japan in October, actually be for the Wii 2, or something else? It was spotted on a trademarks database yesterday by the eagle-eyed Siliconera, who rightly points out that…

Apple Registers TabletMac Trademark After Dueling Axiotron MacBook Modders

It may be a case of Apple simply protecting its brand name, but in light of all the Apple tablet rumors, we’re treating its recent purchase of the “TabletMac” trademark as yet more evidence stacking up in our favour. Taking on Axiotron, whose MacBook mod impressed us so much in our review last year, Apple…