Remarkably, the application is now a registration. The process took approximately 8 months.  Many copyright applications – or at least those filed on paper or before the Copyright office’s electronic filing system existed – take far longer. Some applications our firm has filed for clients have take more than 2 years.

Of course, it is encouraging to see that the delay appears to be much shorter now at least for applications filed online.

One interesting feature of the registration is that the “effective date” is the filing date. And the record now appears in the Copyright Office’s online database.

Copyright Registration Certificate for erikpelton.com website

• Main trademark page

• Trademark Electronic Search Systems (TESS)
• TESS tips
• TESS News including the dates of the most recent data in the databaes
• TESS Help Menu including information about all of the field codes
• Design search code manual

• Essential trademark tools
• Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure (TMEP)
• Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS)
• Trademark Applications and Registrations Retreival (TARR) – easiest way to view status and details when you have the application or registration number
• TSDR - retrieve application documents, status, and more
• ID Manual

• Assignments
• Trademark Assignments search
• File Trademark Assignments

• Main TTAB page
• TTABvue search TTAB cases and view documents
• Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Manual of Procedure (TBMP) Third Edition (May 2011)
• USPTO e-FOIA TTAB Reading Room featuring TTAB decisions
• list the last 30 days of decisions from the TTAB

• Contact information
• USPTO contact page
• Contact Trademarks page (contains many department and support email addresses)
• Employee phone number lookup
• Alphabetical List of USPTO organizations (with contact info)

• Trademark Information Network (videos)
• Subscription center (for USPTO newsletters and other subscriptions)
• List of trademark fees
• Official Gazette for Trademarks
• Trademark News & Notices: recent postings
• TPAC meetings schedule and agendas
• Retrieve USPTO registration certificates – print or PDF up to 25 registration certificates at a time
• USPTO System Status and Availability – stay abreast of current or planned computer outages

It appears this group, TM-Edition, has been around for a few years.  Unlike some of the other recent scam solicitations, this one provides absolutely ZERO value. And the solicitation featurees no contract terms or details on the back, as some of the others do.

If you have any questions about this or any other solicitation related to a trademark, consult your attorney at once.

For more on these and other trademark scams, see the OHIM warning page.

This week, I am leading a roundtable discussion at the INTA® annual meeting on this very subject. I think it ought to be the subject of a lot more of the books and other materials written about trademark protection and  infringement.

Here are some of the issues I for discussion at the roundtable this week. As you can see, settlement can take many forms, come at any stage of the proceedings/dispute, and involves almost endless possibilities. The talking points below are in no way meant to be comprehensive, but serve as possible considerations and issues to discuss.

I. Prelude to settlement discussions

• Cease and desist letter

• Telephone call
• Filing with TTAB
•  Extension of time
•  Opposition/Cancellation
• Infringement Action
• Filed but not served
• Filed and served
• Others

 II  Form of initial overture

• Telephone call
• Short proposal (bullet points via email or letter)
• Full draft Agreement
• Allowing parties to discuss without counsel
• Other

 III.  Once involved in a dispute, timing of settlement discussions

• Before filing of Answer
• Before discovery
• During discovery
• After discovery
• After Motion for Summary Judgment filed
• During Appeal
• Other

IV.   Dealing with unbalanced parties

• Big company vs small business
• Big company vs big company
• Small business vs small business
• Trolls
• Bullies

V.   Getting assistance

• Arbitration
• Mediation

 VI.    Types of settlement agreement structures

• Mutual consent with restrictions to avoid likelihood of confusion

• Cease and desist (with or without phase out)
• License Agreement
• Concurrent Use
• Acquisition of other party
• Permission to use but not register
• Non-Assert or “safe harbor” agreement
• Others

VII.     Key terms in many settlement agreements

1. • WHEREAS clauses – how significant?
   • Recognition of rights of senior user
   • Timing
   •  of phase out
   • of abandonment or surrender of application/registration
   • Dismissal
   • With prejudice or without prejudice?
   • Restrictions on use or registration by either party
   • Scope of agreement (US vs worldwide)
   • Rights to register
   • Amendment of goods/services description?
   • Amendment of mark?
   • Steps to deal with breach
   •       Right to cure?
   •      Arbitration clause?
   •       Injunction eligible?
   • Release of claims
   • Financial compensation
   • Binding on successors in interest and others
   • Confidentiality
   • Execute originals only or electronic copies OK?
   • Other

   

During the conference and the events surrounding it in Washington, DC I found many interesting logos and trademarks – see the pictures below [click photos to enlarge].

For photos of the “Meet the Bloggers” see posts on TTABlog® here and here, as well as Likelihood of Confusion® here.

Why? They are so plain. Now, retro can be cool and these look like an attempt to be “retro” with a new team/name/logo. But they are not retro in a cool way. They are just too plain to me. [The opposite of the recent Miami Marlins logo, which is too much pizzaz.]

Another reason it is lame, there is no imagery in the logo that references New York or Brooklyn, which would seem to be at the core of the brand’s image. The “B” is reminiscent of the Brooklyn Dodgers old logo. But yet it is not the same.  

Also, the nets unveiled some merchandise and apparel that included the shirt below. The image is cool – but it references a message about drug dealers and murders. Is this really an image that a professional basketball teams wishes to associate with?

One positive thing I can say about the logo designs is that the team ownership wisely filed to register the various designs with the USPTO. In one odd filing, they are attempting to register a plain black shield for apparel:

 (Application Serial No. 85605708)

For another take on the logos from a branding blog, see The Brooklyn Nets: I Call Technical Foul

• Copyrights
• Trademarks
• Social Media Accounts
• Keywords
• Legislation

Today’s INTA Daily News featured this tweet/link to my Trademark Attorney’s Guide to Washington, DC:

For the guide, see here.

For the full post, see here.

For more details, see the Senate webpage: “Oversight of the Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator”