Author Archives: John DiGiacomo

Trademark protection in the United States is based on “use in commerce.” Sometimes, competing businesses arrive at the same branding concept at about the same time, raising questions of trademark priority. With respect to trademark priority, as discussed below, too much secrecy can be risky. Many businesses legitimately want to shroud in secrecy various aspects […]

Lessons in Trademarking Trade Dress The long-running legal battle between Samsung and Apple over the shape of their respective smart phones provides some interesting lessons regarding trade dress law and how common law trade dress rights work. See news article here. Apple vs. Samsung: Design Patents and Trademarks for Apple’s iPhone In 2007, Apple, Inc. […]

One thing attorneys may not learn in law school is that there are a lot of scumbags in the world. If you are lucky, a scumbag will let you know their character immediately. In other cases, even the most jaded cynic can be caught off guard. Because of the imagined anonymity of the internet and […]

We wrote recently about registering trademarks in China and the importance of not getting “hustled” by trademark squatters. See here. This is a follow-up article proving some additional information on the China system of registering trademarks. There a some similarities and large differences between the China system and the trademark system in the United States. […]

You may never suffer a data breach, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know how to prevent one. With the number and severity of data breaches rising every year, it is clear that all of us, from the biggest to the smallest company, could brush up on our data security management. You may never suffer […]

In the United States (U.S.), trademark law is, for the most part, supposed to protect consumers. With this purpose in mind, it makes sense that trademark rights arise as soon as you start using a trademark in commerce in a manner that causes your consumers to view the mark as a source indicator. We refer […]

Trademarking colors has been a complex and confusing legal history question. Color has always been allowed as part of the mark design, but for many years trademarking was denied for stand-alone colors and schemes. Even now the TMEP begins from the principle that “[c]olor marks are never inherently distinctive.” The US Supreme Court finally overcame […]

How does Amazon avoid being held liable for trademark infringement? We can find some answers by examining a case recently filed by Daimler AG, maker of Mercedes-Benz cars, against Amazon. Daimler is alleging direct trademark infringement and unfair competition, but the case will inevitably deal with the legal doctrine of contributory trademark infringement. Facts of […]

In January of 2017, an amendment to the Federal Acquisitions Regulation (“FAR”) went into effect related to protecting private personal information and requiring privacy training for all federal government contractors. The regulations were issued pursuant to The Privacy Act of 1974. 5 U.S.C. § 552a. The Privacy Act governs federal agency collection, maintenance, use, and […]

On May 28, 2018, new data protections laws and regulations go into effect for the European Union (“EU”). See recent news report here. The new regulations are called the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). See the full GDPR here. The EU is getting serious about punishing companies that suffer data breaches. For the most serious […]