Another day, another celebrity filing a trademark application to coopt an everyday expression. At the center of this case: Kylie Jenner and the household wakeup call “Rise and Shine”. Following the online explosion of a video of Jenner serenading her daughter with the familiar refrain, she immediately sought to capitalize on the phenomenon by selling sweatshirts with a logo [...]
As the leaves fall every autumn, a seasonal specter rises to suffuse sepulchral storefronts with spirit and spook: the Halloween pop-up shop. For a few weeks every year, dusty ‘For Lease’ signs relinquish their vigil to bright orange-and-black banners broadcasting their bounty to the well-flannelled masses. Where do these stores come from? Where do they go? How can seasonal [...]
Ohio State University’s toughest opponent this season is not on the football field, but in Washington D.C. – the United States Patent and Trademark Office. OSU recently applied to trademark the mark “THE” in order to protect a line of t-shirts and hats sporting the word in large letters above a very small school logo[1]. The USPTO responded to [...]
Lebron James’s recent bid to claim “Taco Tuesday” was a shot and a miss. After weeks of Tuesdays dedicated to shouting, embarrassing his kids, and eating tacos on Instagram, on August 15th Lebron James Trademarks LLC filed an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) to trademark the phrase for use in advertising, marketing, and social [...]
Owning a business is no cakewalk and, as with most facets of modern life, being a woman makes it harder. From the gender pay gap to the lack of maternity leave to discrimination and harassment in the workplace, the barriers facing professional women are well-documented. If they fall into other underrepresented communities – women of color, queer women, disabled [...]
