Blog Archives
Brewing up a Good Name, Indeed
Great coverage from Hot Dish on how one local brewery went about selecting its name: Indeed. Q:Where did the Indeed name originate? Nathan Berndt: We contemplated what we would name our brewery for quite some time while writing our business plan. We’d brainstorm for days and weeks. When we’d find a name we liked, we’d do the due diligence on the availability of it. We’d oft... read more
Know The Differences: Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks
Source: United States Patent and Trademark Office Patents: A patent is a grant of exclusive rights over an invention to an inventor by the government. In exchange, the patent is publicly disclosed. These rights allow the holder to exclude others from using or selling the invention. Patents do not run indefinitely, though. In the United States, patents expire after 20 years. Interesting Patents: ... read more
Trademark Bullying
Business Insider recently released a list of the top ten trademark “bullies”. Trademark bullies are companies that defend their trademarks with a heavy hand, beyond the reasonable reach of trademark law. A well-known example comes from Vermont folk artist Bo Muller-Moore. Bo screen printed shirts with the phrase “Eat More Kale.” These shirts sparked a cease-and-desist l... read more
Trademark FAQs
What is a trademark? A trademark is any word, design or other thing that identifies the source of a good or service. In the United States, a registered trademark is identified by the ® symbol and a non-registered trademark is identified by the letters ‘TM.’ Trademarks are classified according to the trademark’s level of “distinctiveness,” which is generally understoo... read more
