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There's An App For That - But Only From Apple...?

I guess we should have seen this coming – or not.  As reported by CNN on Tuesday, Apple has obtained a federal trademark registration for its slogan, THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT.  Well, ok…CNN got it wrong; the PTO has only just accepted Apple’s Statement of Use, which means that a registration is imminent, but we’ll let CNN slide on this one.

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TAGS: Intellectual Property

Interbrand's Top 100 Global Brands for 2010 Released

Interbrand has just released its annual listing of the Top 100 Global Brands.

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TAGS: Branding, Intellectual Property, Marketing

Bad Brand Decision from Audi "Rears" Its Ugly Head?

Another day, another case of a company not bothering to see how its new trademark translates into the native languages of its intended consumers.

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TAGS: Branding, Intellectual Property, Marketing, Trademark

Supreme Court's Ruling in American Needle Creates Uncertainty Over Future of NFL Licensing

In a landmark decision, released (coincidentally?) on the first day of the International Trademark Association’s Annual Meeting, the U.S. Supreme Court held, in American Needle, Inc. v. National Football League, that the NFL’s licensing activities are covered by Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act which prohibits “every contract, combination in the form of a trust or otherwise, or, conspiracy, in restraint of trade.”  As a result, the NFL will now be required to demonstrate, on remand, that such activities comport with the so-called “Rule of Reason.”

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TAGS: Branding, Intellectual Property, Litigation, Marketing, Trademark

Facebook: Now Presenting, "Brand Destruction!"

Since we created an Evolving Media & Technology Team here at KMK, I have been telling brand owners to proactively manage their presence on Facebook by creating an official, corporate, Facebook page and strategically selecting the fan pages and copycat pages to shut down.  After yet another “update” to its site late last week, Facebook has now made this kind of brand management exponentially more difficult for trademark owners.

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TAGS: Branding, Intellectual Property, Marketing, Social Media, Trademark

Brand Dilution At Its Finest: BMW's New "M" Bicycle

Today, BMW announced that, beginning in June, customers can order its new “M” bicycle.  The bike, which you can see courtesy of Autoblog, is nice enough on the eyes.  But one wonders whether BMW has finally gone too far, indiscriminately slapping its “M” brand on something that is less than true to the “M” heritage.

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TAGS: Branding, Intellectual Property, Marketing

Lindsay Lohan -- The Cure for Writer's Block

Those of you following my blog (both of you) may have noticed that I’ve been suffering from a nasty case of writer’s block, as I haven’t posted anything for about 2 months.  Thankfully, I have been cured.  Lindsay Lohan is my muse.

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TAGS: Intellectual Property, Marketing

In With the Old? An Update.

This is an update on my November 9th post regarding new and (sometime not) improved logos adopted by various companies.  In that post, I talked about how much I didn’t like Pepsi’s new logo, which to me looks like a store-brand, generic logo.  Well, perhaps Pepsi agrees with me...

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TAGS: Branding, Intellectual Property, Logos, Marketing

Does The North Face Have Its Head in Its Butt?

You may have heard that on Thursday, December 10th, The North Face Apparel Corp. (home page here) sued 19-year old entrepreneur (and, apparently, amateur comic) Jimmy Winkelmann in a Missouri District Court for trademark infringement arising out of a parody Mr. Winkelmann created out of The North Face’s rather well known logo. 

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TAGS: Branding, Intellectual Property, Litigation, Logos, Marketing

New Internationalized Domain Names May Make Internet Trademark Enforcement Even More Difficult

As if protecting trademarks from domain name cyber-squatters was not already difficult enough, the recent announcement by the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”) regarding internationalized domain names (“IDNs”) may add to brand owners’ already significant headaches in this area. 

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TAGS: Branding, Intellectual Property, Marketing