patent Archives - Protopopescu & Partners

Snoop Dogg’s cooking something up

Tiberiu Protopopescu — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 21:06:49 +0000

Making yourself noticed and getting a foothold in the market is rather difficult, regardless of what goods or services you provide. It’s a dog-eat-dog world after all!

One person who is truly trying to make themselves noticed in the ruthless hot dog industry is the famous rapper Snoop Dogg. He has filed a trademark application with the US Patent and Trademark Office for “Snoop Doggs”. This trademark is aimed at “food for consumption on or off the premises including hot dogs, hot dog sausages, sausages, turkey sausages, vegetarian sausages.”

It is uncertain if Snoop will actually use the trademark, given that in 2011 he registered the “Snoop Scoops” trademark for ice cream, but never really did anything with it.

Most likely, the purpose of this trademark application is not actually to sell branded cured cylindrical meats, but rather to block future applications from ill-intentioned third parties. Seems like Snoop is going to let applicants bark up the wrong tree.

Given the inherent distinctiveness of the trademark’s name, it is safe to say that the chances for successfully registering “Snoop Doggs” are, just like him, rather high.

Whether you are a famous rapper or not, you should always trademark your goods and services.

Not sure how? Send us a message and we’ll help you register with OSIM, EUIPO or WIPO.

We smile and litigate.

*image credit JASON LAVERIS / FILMMAGIC; GETTY IMAGES*

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Something’s brewing for the Elvis Juice trademark

Tiberiu Protopopescu — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 15:15:13 +0000

We all enjoy listening to music while drinking a nice, cold beer after a long day at the office.

Well, seems like the fine people from the BrewDog brewery decided to bring those two concepts together by trying to trademark ”Elvis Juice” and ”BrewDog Elvis Juice” for their new beverage.

However, a trademark conflict was brewing between them and Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE), the company that manages the estate of the late singer. Thus, EPE filed an opposition against the two trademarks.

A sour legal aftertaste

In an attempt to ensure the registration of their trademark applications, two brewers hopped on to changing their own names from James Watt and Martin Dickie to ”Elvis” and filing an appeal, but to no avail.

Ultimately, EUIPO granted the opposition and dismissed the appeal, which led to the refusal of the trademark application.

EUIPO argued that ”It is clear that the applicant’s submission based on the peaceful coexistence of the marks cannot succeed. No evidence actually demonstrating such peaceful existence on the pertinent market has been shown. In short…there exists a likelihood of confusion… A likelihood of confusion for only part of the relevant public of the European Union is sufficient to reject the contested application.”

To avoid being left with a sour aftertaste, all which BrewDog can do is to rebrand their beer and continue selling in the EU.

The main takeaway from here is that you should always make sure that whatever name, logo or design you use is not already registered.

Not sure how to search for it? Send us a message and we’ll help.

We smile and litigate.

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Who owns the copyright to the moon?

Tiberiu Protopopescu — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:23:56 +0000

When the moon hits your eye

For some people, “when the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, that’s amore”, as per the lyrics of Dean Martin.

However, for some unfortunate youtubers it’s not amore, it’s a copyright infringement claim.

Such was the case of Philip Bloom, a youtube content creator, who got flagged for uploading a video of the moon shot by himself, which had no audio.

The copyright infringement claim came from Universal Music Group, who alleged that 30 seconds of the audioless video belonged to the corporate music giant.

Copyright claims to the moon and back

This comes as quite a shock, since the video had generic shots of the moon belonging the creator and had no sound, which would only lead to a somewhat logical conclusion that Universal Music Group believe they own intellectual property rights of the celestial body or, maybe, a slice of the big pizza pie.

It would seem that Philip Bloom was not the only one who was targeted by the seemingly unfounded claims, since many others creators noticed that their videos of the moon had been flagged by UMG.

In the meantime, without offering any explanation, Universal Music Group has retracted many such copyright infringement claims, including those regarding Mr. Bloom’s video, as mentioned in the article by PetaPixel.

One might argue that UMG could be liable for knowingly making false claims. Unfortunately, the burden of proof lies upon the content creator to prove that they had incurred monetary losses.

Seems like some trolls like to live under bridges, while others bask in the moonlight of legal abuse.

If you want to make sure that you have full protection of your intellectual property rights or want to avoid false claims by lunar trolls, contact us.

We smile and litigate.

Find out more about copyright here.

*image by Philip Bloom and PetaPixel*

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Protect your app icon

Tiberiu Protopopescu — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 14:25:10 +0000

App icons as trademarks

Nowadays everyone relies on apps to either do their work better or utterly procrastinate. Each app is either for productivity or for hilarity.

Since they are the cornerstone of the modern tech-savvy person, the companies must compete with each other to capture the short attention span of everyone of us. One of the main tricks to catch the eye is by implementing a neat-looking app icon.

However, how can you ensure, as an app-developer, that no other competitor uses the same or a similar icon? Well, easy – you register it as a trademark.

Dos and don’ts – Register trademark

Before you start applying for a trademark, make sure you follow these tips.

First of all, make sure that your icon is distinctive enough, so that users immediately recognize it as belonging to your app. As such, please do not use graphics that are incredibly simple or over-the-top abstract, as they might be rejected by the Office.

Secondly, refrain from using an icon that describes in full the services or the product which you are providing. For example, you cannot use the name “Fruits” to sell bananas online.

If you do manage to register such a trademark, we wish you good luck in trying to enforce it.

Thirdly, make sure there are no prior identical or similar registered trademarks. If such is the case, we highly recommend you undergo a design change. Otherwise, all the budget you invest in marketing and client awareness will be in vain.

Lastly, make sure you own the rights to the name and/or logo, if they are created by a designer or a marketing team. You can ensure this via a very clear and well-written agreement.

In order to make sure that you’ll touch upon all these points and you’ll have the highest chances of success with registration, feel free to contact us.

We are always happy to work with young entrepreneurs, startups, and market veterans.

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This patent seems to be lacking backbone

Tiberiu Protopopescu — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 18:17:17 +0000

The mighty Johnny Cash once said “what is done in the dark will be brought to the light”. Seems like Helene Adelaide Shelby, an inventor, took that saying quite literally and filed a patent in 1927, aimed at protecting a new interrogation method.

This patent sought that in order to extract a confession that the murderer be put face-to-face with their propped up victim. The body would have its eyes replaced by red blinking lights, while flood lighting would project upwards over the body as to cast a spooky atmosphere.

The idea was that the murderer would be so scared of the ghastly apparition that they would be compelled to admit the truth in sheer terror, while an engineer behind the body would record the entire… uhmm… spectacle. The only fact here that isn’t shocking is that this method was never implemented.

If you want to make sure your intellectual property rights won’t go unused to their full potential, contact us.
We smile and litigate!

Patent link: https://lnkd.in/ex25bNG

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