3 Questions Before Launching a New Product

“Everyone copies everyone” There is often a grey area between innovation and imitation when it comes to a highly competitive industry. Nevertheless, you often hear about patent infringement lawsuits and trademark disputes. Especially in the U.S., lawsuits and other legal disputes are a serious problem for business owners. If you once get served with a… Continue reading 3 Questions Before Launching a New Product

A Legal Perspective of Trademark Misuse

This article contains fictional scenarios that include facts and legal issues that are created for an explanatory purpose. Any of those facts and legal issues including legal conclusions may not be true when applied to your case. Please seek a legal advice or counsel if you need any help.

Trademark Registration – IPfever Way

I guess you can file a trademark application yourself, which will cost a bit over $200 in government fees (for a long-term cost analysis, see https://www.ipfever.com/how-much-does-a-trademark-registration-cost/ ).Here, the worst case scenario is you get a rejection letter (called Office Action). If there’s a mistake, you can amend it. In other cases, you can probably go around the… Continue reading Trademark Registration – IPfever Way

Choosing a Right Name for your Brand or Product

Zara, which is a Fast Fashion brand like Forever 21, boasts that it takes only 10 to 15 days for an initial product design to reach their retail stores through international manufacture and logistics. In this fast-paced environment where a product can be copied within a few days and mass produced, a superb product design… Continue reading Choosing a Right Name for your Brand or Product

$225 to Register a Trademark?

We have discussed the importance of trademark in “Amazon Suggests Branding for All“, and compared good and bad trademarks in “How often do you Google your trademark“. This time, we will learn about how to register a trademark.

What is Trademark?

A trademark is a mark you use in order to identify your good or service. For instance, IPfever is a trademark as it’s associated with services and contents offered at IPfever.com. If a law professor wants to start a blog about IP, she shouldn’t name it IPfever. Such naming would mislead people to think that the blog was associated with IPfever. But, on the other hand, if a… Continue reading What is Trademark?

US Trademark Backlog in the 1Q 2018?

There’s been reports about a huge number of applications, originating from China. See e.g. this WJ article at https://www.wsj.com/articles/flood-of-trademark-applications-fromchinaalarms-u-s-officials-1525521600. Then, is there a backlog created by the increase of Chinese trademarks? I had a chance to look at the dates of applications filed on behalf of my clients from 3Q to 4Q of ’17 and to… Continue reading US Trademark Backlog in the 1Q 2018?