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Monthly Archives: October 2011
Indigenous culture and pop culture have clashed in court several times in recent memory. Several popular items that have been the subject of such disputes include the Jeep Grand Cherokee and sports teams like football’s Washington Redskins or baseball’s Cleveland Indians. “Hipster” retailer Urban Outfitters is now facing legal troubles over its Navajo line of products for alleged trademark infringement. Representing about 200,000 Native Americans, the Navajo Nation was not pleased with Urban Outfitters’ line of products that featured Native American prints or the word “Navajo” in their description. Urban Outfitters offered such products as the “Navajo Print Fabric Wrapped Flask,” the “Peace Treaty Feather Necklace” and the “Staring at Stars Skull Native Headdress T-Shirt.” Fearing that consumers would think the products were official Navajo Nation goods, the organization sent a cease and desist letter to Urban Outfitters alleging trademark infringement. At least at first, Urban Outfitters appeared unapologetic. The…
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It’s not often, but occasionally two companies do come to a compromise in an intellectual property lawsuit that avoids a lengthy and expensive legal battle in court and that leaves both sides happy. It looks like Twitter and Twittad came to such an agreement a few weeks ago. We posted several weeks back about the battle over the right to trademark the word “tweet” that was occurring between the two companies. Twitter was trying to register “tweet” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”), but it kept running into troubles. The PTO refused to grant Twitter the trademark because there were already registrations for “tweetmarks,” “cotweet,” tweetphoto” and “tweets.” Twittad owned the registration for the phrase “Let Your Ad Meet Tweets.” Frustrated with its inability to register the trademark associated with its own service, Twitter brought a trademark infringement lawsuit against Twittad in San Francisco federal court. Twitter and…
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The three areas that intellectual property law in the United States protects are copyright, trademark and patent. Many people confuse the three and, in particular, copyright and trademark. Patents are the most different amongst the group, so we will start there. For patents, think of inventors and their inventions. The inventions have to be new, useful and non-obvious to qualify for protection. They do not have to be groundbreaking, as, for example, the common shape of paperclips once qualified for patent protection. Patents cover machines, designs (the process to build something, for example) and even plants (when someone discovers a way to produce a new variety of plant). For copyrights, think of artists and authors. Copyrights protect original creations like songs, paintings, novels, plays and anything else along these lines. You do not have to register them, although that is an option. If you created it originally, you own the…
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