The Blog Lawyer

Trademark Battles (part 3)

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This is the third installment of a series of blog posts talking about the way some companies seek to enforce their trademark rights. You can read part 1 of the Trademark Battles here and part 2 of the Trademark Battles here.

Today’s lesson is another cautionary tale where a company regrets their decision to enter into the sometimes murky waters of trademark enforcement. It’s always better to tread lightly, particularly when you have exposure to the consuming public. Sometimes, you may find out that your decision to aggressively enforce your trademark leads you into trouble.

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Trademark Battles (part 2)

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In my last blog post, I introduced the concept of a trademark bully and gave an example, using Monster Beverage Company for illustration purposes. In that blog post, I highlighted the specific problems associated with an attack by a trademark bully. You can read the “Trademark Battles (part 1)” blog post here. For this installment, we’ll focus on another notorious trademark bully, Apple (a/k/a Apple Computer). While Apple has a lot of satisfied customers, they also have angered a lot of people with their aggressive trademark enforcement tactics. [Read more…]

Trademark Battles (part 1)

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Trademarks = Big Business + Big Money

For many businesses today, trademarks can be the most valuable asset that they own. For example, as shown in the table below, Coke is widely considered to be the most valuable soft drink brand in the world, worth almost $90 billion. 

With this kind of money at stake, it’s no wonder companies will sometimes fight tooth and nail to protect their brand, even when their brand isn’t truly threatened. Sometimes, companies take a very hard line against competitors and seek to shut the competition down, in any way that they can. This can lead to companies fighting over their trademarks as each company tries to seize the advantage. In this series of posts, I’m going to present a few of the most notorious types of battles that take place in the world of trademarks. We’ll start with one approach that has been increasing dramatically over the past few decades. The “Trademark Bully.”

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Get Real

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News Isn’t the Only Fake Thing on Social Media

Selling products on Amazon can be a very profitable enterprise and many influencers successfully sell their products online using Amazon as a platform. While it’s possible to make a lot of money using Amazon, some social media influencers recently got into hot water. They were allegedly selling counterfeit products through Amazon using their social media platforms including Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

According to Amazon, Kelly Fitzpatrick and Kelly-Krejci took part in a scheme where they promoted what they called “dupes,” where a product is meant to look similar to a designer item without infringing on trademarks or copyrights. But in this case, the products were actually designer knock-offs sold by third-party Amazon sellers who concealed them in product listings.

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Cover Your Assets

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I’ve received some questions from a number of influencers over the past few weeks on the subject of insurance coverage.  In addition, there have been some discussions in some Facebook groups where this topic is getting some interest. It seems like there’s an emerging trend in many influencer contracts where the brand/sponsor requires some level of liability insurance coverage in the contract.

The reason why having appropriate insurance coverage is so important is that you’ve worked hard to build a valuable business. You don’t want a misstep or mistake to strip the value out of your business. Additionally, since many contracts may now require insurance coverage, it’s a good idea to keep up with the changes. Given that many people don’t really understand or speak the language of insurance, this can get pretty confusing pretty fast. Although this post is a bit long and has a lot of “legal” like stuff going on, it will help you get up to speed on what kinds of insurance coverage you may want or need.

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Name Calling For Fun and Profit!

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I get a lot of questions about trademarks and, based on the type and quantity of questions I get, I suspect there is a need to clear up some basic issues that are common to trademarks in general. While this post is a bit longer and more detailed than some or my other posts, I hope you find it useful as you contemplate what a trademark might mean for you and your social media presence. Enjoy.

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