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Category Archives: Trademark
Since the Atari 2600 became the first widespread successful home video game console in 1977, the video game industry has to come affect most Americans, with almost three-fourths of all households playing video games of some sort. Worldwide, the video game industry generations $25.1 billion in sales and an increasing percentage of sales (about a fourth now) are digital. The video game industry employs tens of thousands of employees (almost half of which are in California), which is unsurprising given that the video game industry involves all aspects of intellectual property law. Copyrights protect the games themselves. When software piracy is discussed, this means copyright infringement, as video games are works of expression that receive copyright protection just as novels and paintings do. Trademarks cover video game companies’ logos and names. Trademarks also come into play with video games that are becoming more and more realistic, since companies often try…
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Perhaps the biggest event of the year for computer and video game fans is the Electronic Entertainment Expo, more commonly known as “E3,” that takes place each summer at the Los Angeles Convention Center. 2012’s E3 will be taking place June 5-7. The first E3 in 1995 drew over 80,000 visitors who came to get a preview of forthcoming games and to see the latest in hardware developments. The gathering has since changed to invite-only for industry professionals, but the buzz surrounding E3 has continued to grow nevertheless. Numerous media sites like IGN and Gamespot cover the event live, and one network, G4, even broadcasts live during the week of the event. An important issue for E3 and the entity behind the expo, the Entertainment Software Association, is piracy and for good reason – some estimate the losses due to piracy amount to almost $10 billion a year worldwide. While…
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Many trademark courtroom battles involve descriptive trademarks that acquire secondary meaning. These marks require secondary meaning because, unlike fanciful or other marks with an inherent uniqueness or creativity, they do not automatically receive trademark protection. Descriptive marks require something more, and courts look to secondary meaning to determine whether a mark has achieved that extra something in the public’s mind. An example of a descriptive mark that acquired secondary meaning that we have mentioned in the past is the fast food giant Kentucky Fried Chicken. Originally, Kentucky Fried Chicken simply described a location and the way that the restaurant prepared its food. Kentucky Fried Chicken became associated with the fast food restaurant to such an extent in consumers’ minds, though, that it acquired enough secondary meaning to merit trademark protection. Here are some of the factors that courts and the US Patent and Trademark Office consider when determining whether your…
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