Category: Trademark

On April 21, 2017, Western District of Michigan Judge Gordon J. Quist ruled the State of Michigan lacks standing in a declaratory judgment action to declare the use and registration of federally registered marks are unlawful. TTAB Proceedings On December 3, 2013, the State of Michigan filed a cancellation proceeding in the TTAB seeking to […]

Incontestable trademarks are like super-trademarks: they are even more protected than your run-of-the-mill marks. Incontestable marks are marks that have been listed on the Federal Register and have been in use for more than five years. Once this magical five-year window has passed, the mark automatically adopts one very important and powerful protection: it is […]

Revision Legal partner, John DiGiacomo, presented at the Business Owners Speaker Series in Traverse City. He focused on how to minimize the risks of online marketing and social media for businesses. According to John, the biggest mistake companies make is not acquiring social media channels prior to launch. The second biggest mistake is not acquiring or […]

Revision Legal’s intellectual property lawyers are located in Southwestern Michigan and are Chicago trademark attorneys that give businesses the advice they need at the price they want. Our experienced intellectual property lawyers have registered hundreds of trademarks and protected the intellectual property rights of businesses across the United States, including Chicago-based businesses. While a majority […]

Registering a trademark may seem like a daunting task, but it isn’t. However, the confusion usually arises when you are trying to determine “first use”. The first time you used your trademark could, but is probably not, the correct date to use as the “first use in commerce” date in the trademark application. That is […]

Trademarking holograms can be very problematic. To date, our research has shown that, so far, the USPTO has refused to register trademarks for any holograms. Holograms, of course, are among what are commonly called nontraditional trademarks. Such include color, sound, taste, scent, three-dimensional shapes, and moving image marks. Registering a nontraditional mark is more difficult […]

To remove a trademark from the Federal Register, a petitioner can file what is known as a Petition to Cancel with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB). The TTAB is an adjudicatory body within the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). If a petitioner succeeds, the disputed mark will be removed from the […]

With over 300 million members who share more than 70 million photos and videos each day, Instagram has become a popular global community where individuals and brands can share photos and videos.  In the spring of 2014, more than 3 million users interacted with more than 2,500 brand posts, which generated a per-follower engagement rate […]

Affirmative Defenses in Trademark Infringement Affirmative defenses in trademark infringement cases is an excuse for the conduct of a potential trademark infringer, which would allow continued use of the mark. There are two affirmative defenses to trademark infringement: fair use and parody. Fair Use Defense A fair use defense in trademark law applies when a […]

What is Nominative Use? What is nominative use? When most people need to blow their nose they will ask for a Kleenex. Most people do not realize that what they are actually asking for is a certain brand of face tissue. However, many people equate Kleenex with all face tissue regardless of the brand. This […]