protejare marca Archives - Protopopescu & Partners

Kim Kardashian’s trademark skin is in trouble

Tiberiu Protopopescu — Fri, 01 Jul 2022 16:46:59 +0000

It’s not easy being one of the most famous people in the world, especially when you try to… uhmm… borrow inspiration for brand names. Such is the case of Kim Kardashian, who is being sued for trademark infringement.

An american businesswoman, Cydnie Lunsford, owner of the beauty salon called Beauty Concepts, claims to have been using the term “SKKN+” since August 2018, as well as owning the www.skknplus.com domain name. Moreover, on March 28th, 2021 she had filed for the “SKKN+” trademark for beauty salon and skincare services.

In what might only be considered a lucky instance of parallel thinking, Mrs. Kardashian’s legal team filed on March 31st, 2021 for several trademark applications for the term “SKKN BY KIM” for skincare products and miscellaneous merchandise. Additionally, several months later Kim Kardashian also filed for the “SKKN” trademark.

Given her seemingly prior intellectual property rights, Mrs. Lunsford had sent a cease and desist in an attempt to halt the unlawful use of the “SKKN” trademark by the famed reality star.

However, her attempts were met with pushback by Kim Kardashian’s legal team, who claimed that they see no fault in using said term. One of the lawyers is credited with saying “We pointed out that running a small esthetician business in Brooklyn does not give it the right to shut down a global skin care line”, adding that “Since we’ve done nothing wrong, we stood our ground.”

Now we must ask ourselves a few key questions, namely is it lawful for a wealthy and “global skin care line” to use a prior trademark of a small business and could such a descriptive term “skin/skkn” be registered for skincare products?

Currently, all these questions are unanswered, but we might soon find out the conclusion, given that Mrs. Lunsford has sued Kim Kardashian on June 28th, 2022 for trademark infringement and unfair competition, unlawful deceptive acts and business practices, civil conspiracy, common law unjust enrichment and reverse confusion

The main takeaway from here is that you should always make sure that whatever name, logo or design you use is registered and you fight back against anyone who infringes upon your right.

Send us a message and we’ll help you protect your rights.

We smile and litigate.

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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.

The post Something’s brewing for the Elvis Juice trademark appeared first on Protopopescu & Partners.

A cup full of trademark infringement

Tiberiu Protopopescu — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 18:03:34 +0000

A cup filled to the brim

Some people see the cup half empty, others see the cup half full. It seems that Solo Cup Company see it fully infringed.

The Solo Cup Company is famous in the US for the selling the (in)famous red plastic cup, ubiquitous in college movies. However, they also make other cups, including one with a blue and purple zig-zag stripe, pictured here on the left.

Christoper Locke is an artist and ceramics teacher, whose works focus on overconsumption and hints at the current state of corporate America. As such, he created a series of ceramic cups which showcase a satirical portrayal of the blue stripe, most notably ones that use that font to spell “Corporate Bullshit”.

Bottoms up

After posting the artwork on his Instagram account, Locke was promptly reported for trademark infringement, due to the fact that Solo Cup Company owns the trademark to the blue-purple pattern.

Although he deleted the photos, it would seem that one was left behind. Consequently, Instagram considered him as being a repeat infringer and swiftly deleted the artist’s entire account.

Despite numerous attempts to regain his account back, nothing could be done. After reaching out to the owner of the trademark, they coporatedly replied that the Company “appreciates its passionate community of fans”, but “we can assure you that we are in the process of remedying the other infringing items and that your items are not being singled out.”

In the meantime Instagram wrote back to him “We previously warned you that if you continued to infringe the rights of third parties, we would terminate your account. Accordingly, your account has been deactivated and you are no longer permitted to use Instagram. Thanks for your cooperation.”

Some might call into question the freedom of art. Others might point towards trademark dilution. Quite the conundrum.

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.

Image: SOLO PROMOTIONAL IMAGE/ CHRISTOPHER LOCKE CERAMICS.

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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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