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Archive for the ‘Trademarks’ Category
Trademark Issues for Martha Stewart
An article on postcrescent.com reports that Martha Stewart, who recently spent several months in jail, is currently using her name to sell furniture from her Katonah Collection, which include a four-poster bed and a tailored English sofa. As a result, Martha and her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimeida, Inc., are applying for trademark protection for the Katonah Collection, named after her new hometown, Katonah, in upstate New York. Stewart moved to Katonah after having lived in Westport,Connecticut for more than 30 years. Katonah is named after a 17th-century Indian chief. Not only are the residents of Katonah not excited that Stewart, an ex-con, has moved in, they are even less excited that she is planning on trademarking the name of their town. It is common for manufacturers to trademark the name of their own town to
Florida Trademark Dispute Over MyFlorida.com
According to an article in the Miami Herald, the state of Florida is trying to protect its trademark in court from a domain name publisher that bought MyFlorida.mobi. Thomas Rask, Florida-based Logical Sites chief executive, bought the name for two years at $70. Shortly after that, a Florida Department of Management Services contacted Rask requesting that he hand the website over, since the state owns the MyFlorida.com trademark. The World Intellectual Property Organization ruled last month that Rask must give up the site. However, Rask has hired a Florida trademark attorney to file a complaint with a district court in Tampa. His argument is that the words "my" and "Florida" are too generic to enforce a trademark. He also says that since businesses with trademarks have to registe
Trademark Infringement Case is High Steaks
The Nashville Post reports that Orlando Florida-based Darden Restaurants, the owner of Red Lobster and Olive Garden, is being sued for trademark infringement by Nashville-based O’Charley’s owner of the Stoney River chain. The dispute stems over Darden Restaurant’s new concept for a steakhouse, Rocky River Grillhouse, a lodge type eatery serving grilled steaks and seafood. O’Charley’s find this concept too similar to its Stoney River Legendary Steaks, which opened last year in Nashville’s West End. According to the lawsuit, the word ‘rocky’ is synonymous with ‘stoney,’ no to mention the fact that the decor and menu for both establishments is strikingly similar. The first Rocky River opened in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, last November as a test location. There
Florida Trademark Infringement Litigation
Florida trademark infringement lawsuits can be brought under either the Florida trademark statute (Chapter 495) or under federal law (Lanham Act) depending upon whether or not a federal trademark registration has been obtained. If you are not sure if you or someone else has obtained a Florida trademark registration, you may want to do a search on the Florida trademark database. Many general practitioners in Florida only occassionally see intellectual property litigation of any type, much less, Florida trademark litigation, and are not aware of the benefits of Florida’s trademark statute. At one time, state law was seen as providing the primary venue for protection of trademarks. All of this changed, however, when federal trademark laws were enacted by Congress. The main federal st
Trademark Infringement Takes a Bite out of Apple
The Orlando Sentinel reports that Apple, Inc. has been sued by Cisco Systems, Inc. over the use of the iPhone name, prompting a traddmark infringement battle the day after Apple introduced its new mobile device under the same name. Cisco filed suit Wednesday, January 10, 2007 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, trying to prevent the iPhone name from being utilized by Apple. The iPhone trademark has been owned for six years by Cisco and both companies have been negotiating over the rights to the name for the past several years without an agreement being reached. Less than a month before the suit was filed, Cisco released a cordless internet-based phone under the same name.