Category Archives: News

On December 29, 2020 the Shanghai Higher People’s Court issued a final judgment in a case involving counterfeit Lego toy products in which it sent the defendants to jail with sentences as high as six years and fines of up … Continue reading →

On January 29, 2013 I wrote a post entitled DIGITAL ESTATE PLANNING. See https://www.chicagotrademarkattorney.net/?s=digital+estate+planning Call this post DIGITAL ESTATE PLANNING 2.0. Since that date, effective August 12, 2016, the Illinois  Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act came into … Continue reading →

The “Long March” was the strategic retreat of the Red Army led by Mao Zedong in 1934. It has become glorified by the People’s Republic of China as an example of the Communist Party’s strength and resilience.  China has come … Continue reading →

You may have noticed that there is an election coming up, at least in the United States. So I thought that I’d write about political branding. No, I’m not referring to branding your political opponent as a/an [fill in the … Continue reading →

Here’s the trademark dilemma:  The Dilemma! You own a trademark that you have used for almost twenty years. Another entity has registered a similar trademark.  The second half of both trademarks are virtually identical. The first half of both trademarks, … Continue reading →

Commerce Electronic commerce (e-commerce) law governs commerce, trade, and sales. This field of cyberspace law deals with issues such as security, contracts, and human resources. The manufacture of products and their sale can also fall under e-commerce law. Security laws … Continue reading →

In an April 23rd decision written by Justice Neil Gorsuch the Supreme Court decided that trademark infringement did not have to be willful for a Plaintiff to be entitled to Defendant’s profits. In that case Appellee Fossil sold a variety … Continue reading →

As a business, you want to be able to protect your product designs. That’s because an attractive, distinctive product design can attract buyers, increase sales and enhance your goodwill. But that same distinctive design, once copied by a competitor, can … Continue reading →

For years on this page I have discussed the risk of cyberattacks or cyberwar. But it you want a list of bad actors ready, willing and able to attack the homeland via cyberattacks, you need not look any further than … Continue reading →

On June 16, 2012 in a post labeled https://www.chicagotrademarkattorney.net/new-domain-names-bring-new-challenges-to-protecting-your-brand/ I alerted trademark owners to the establishment of new generic top level domains. Among those new domains were .XXX, .ADULT, .PORN & SEX and I wrote that “When the .XXX domain … Continue reading →

In https://www.chicagotrademarkattorney.net/acquiring-and-maintaining-a-trademark/ I discussed the advantages of obtaining a federal trademark registration in the U.S. To enjoy those advantages, you need to file an application to obtain that registration in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The first step in … Continue reading →

Section 32 of the U.S. Trademark Act defines (15 U.S.C. sec. 1114) trademark infringement as the unauthorized use of an owner’s mark which is likely to cause confusion, mistake or deception. Among the elements considered in determining whether trademark infringement … Continue reading →

Most countries outside the United States do not require that you use your trademark in that country in order to obtain exclusive rights in that mark in that country. All you have to do to obtain those rights is to … Continue reading →

The short answer to that question is no. Most people can’t live without access to the world’s knowledge, most recorded music, on-call transport, the world’s largest retail store, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, instantaneous traffic and weather reports, etc., all of which … Continue reading →