Omid Khalifeh, Author at Omni Legal Group Blog

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What You Need To Know About Trademarks For Your Business

Highly acclaimed musicians Beyoncé and Jay-Z have recently filed trademark applications in the names of their newborn twins, Rumi and Sir Carter. Both applications were filed on June 26, 2017, around the same time as when the entire family returned home from the hospital. As we reported after the birth of their first child, they took the same precautions for the name of their eldest daughter, Blue Ivy. This month we discuss the importance of registering one’s intellectual property interest in a name by filing for trademark registration. The following is some important information business owners should know about trademark law.

Trademarks let consumers know where the goods and services they are purchasing originate. They also prevent third parties from free-riding off of the goodwill another company has generated by copying their name. In other words, trademarks help the consumer identify or recognize your company. Trademark registration can be used to protect not just your name, but your logos, emblems, colors, and characters.

When filing a trademark application you must identify what your specific mark is and what specific goods or services you provide under that mark. The scope of protection will be limited accordingly. For instance, a company who registers the name of GREEN MUSHROOM to use with the jewelry they sell would not be able to prevent another party from using the name GREEN MUSHROOM Pizza Parlor for their restaurant because they are in a completely different category and therefore not likely to cause consumers to be confused about the source of the goods they are purchasing
There are numerous benefits to trademark registration. Some of the benefits of registering your trademarks include nationwide as opposed to regional protection of your mark, proof that the mark is yours via a Registration Certificate from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), in a situation where the owner wants to license the mark (such as with a franchise) registration can provide others with proof that you are the owner of the mark.

Business owners should begin by conducting a clearance search before they invest too much into a mark. This can help make sure they don’t receive cease and desist letters from other parties who already registered that mark. Once you receive the search results, you can file an intent-t0-use trademark application even before you begin using the mark in commerce. The trademark registration process can take a while (often over 6 months), so it is best to start early.

Because of the intricacies and nuances inherent to trademark law, it is generally advisable to use a lawyer to register your trademark. A lawyer can research in depth and advise you on how to avoid potential pitfalls that can lead to costly lawsuits. Choosing the right lawyer can be crucial. For more information on selecting the right counsel see our blog article entitled HOW DO YOU CHOOSE THE RIGHT ATTORNEY FOR YOU? By using the following link: https://omnilegalgroup.com/blog/choosetherightattorney/.

Learning more about how trademarks can add value to your company and protect your company’s goodwill in the long run. Familiarizing yourself with some of this crucial information will help mitigate the risk that someone else will use your hard-earned trademarks and mislead your customers.

Sir Isaac Newton

On this day in 1687, Sir Isaac Newton makes public his outline of the laws of motion and universal gravitation. This world renowned work entitled Principia was first published by the Royal Society in England. Today we honor this great physicist and mathematician with some patents putting these principles to work. #patents #omnilegalgroup #isaacnewton #physics #USPTO

Sax Patent

On this day in 1846, the first patent to a Saxophone was issued to Antoine Joseph Sax. Born Adolphe Sax in 1814, he was awarded French Patent #3226 for his novel apparatus illustrated below in a family of 8 different embodiments. Over the years, Sax was attributed to producing and improving upon a number of different instruments. However, none of them gained the same level of acceptance and commercial success as the Saxophone.#Saxophone #patent #omnilegalgroup #internationalpatentlaw

International Yoga Day

June 21st is International Yoga Day. In 2014, a UN declaration was issued with support by 177 nations who cosponsored the resolution (the highest number ever for any such measure). This year, 72 students and teachers have traveled to the United States from India and will be performing yogic exercises at the United Nations Headquarters to honor the occasion. #patent #namaste #omnilegalgroup #international #yoga #internationalyogaday

SUPREME COURT RULING: Disparagement Clause of the Lanham Act

SUPREME COURT RULING: The Asian-American rock band originally denied registration for their band name The Slants prevails in their effort to gain U.S. trademark registration. They were originally denied by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for violating the disparagement clause of the Lanham Act. This part of the Trademark Act denies federal registrations for trademarks comprising immoral, deceptive or scandalous matter or that might disparage persons or groups or bring them into contempt or disrepute. In what is certain to be a controversial decision, the Supreme Court today found this to be a violation of free speech. This ruling will most certainly open the door for applicants seeking Federal protection for derogatory marks such as the Redskin football team who in 2014 had their trademarks cancelled for violating the disparagement clause. #trademarks #omnilegalgroup #SupremeCourt #USPTO #lanhamact #disparagementclause

Flag Day

On this day in 1777, the stars and stripes were adopted by the Second Continental Congress as the official Flag of the United States. This version of old glory has numerous legends tracing its origins with design credits being attributed to Francis Hopkinson and Betsy Ross. To this day, neither has been corroborated. In honor of Flag Day, we solute the inventors who have incorporate the stars and stripes into their patented designs. #patents #USPTO #flagday #america #oldglory #thestarsandstripes #omnilegalgroup

How Do You Choose the Right Attorney for You?

Hiring an attorney can be a daunting and difficult decision. You are aware it could require a significant financial commitment as well as a commitment of time since most legal matters are not quickly disposed of. How do you know you have the right person for the job?

The first questions you need ask yourself are basic and relevant to all legal issues:

Does the attorney I’m considering specialize in the area of law that I need?
All attorneys are barred through the same process and can practice any area of law, with the exception of patent law. Patent attorneys need to be admitted to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. That being the case, most attorneys specialize in a specific type of law, for example, criminal law, contract and transactional law, personal injury law, and intellectual property to name a few. It is important to select an attorney that specializes in the area of law that is relevant to your matter.
Is the attorney local to me and able to practice law in the state I need?
Attorneys are barred in specific states. If you have a matter that needs to be handled in New York while you live in California, you would need to find an attorney that is barred in New York to handle your matter. It is helpful if an attorney is local to you so that you can meet one-on-one if need be but it is not always a critical factor.
Make sure you check with the bar association to confirm that the attorney is in good standing.
Can I talk to this person?
You need to be able to communicate well with your attorney and feel confident that they are listening to your concerns and needs. If you feel uncomfortable with them, they may not be the right person for you.
What experience does the attorney have? How many cases have they handled and what is their approximate success rate?
Is they attorney you’re considering newly barred? If so, who is overseeing their work? You should know how skilled the attorney that you are using is.
Is the firm that you will be using big or small?
In big firms, more senior attorneys tend to oversee the work of less experienced attorneys and do less of the actual work. Many times this is not an issue but you should know who is doing the actual work for you. In smaller firms, often whom you consult with is the person performing the work.
How will you be billed and what will the approximate costs be?
There are three basic ways that you will be billed: flat fee, contingency, or hourly. There are reasons for all three. Flat fee billing is the easiest to estimate at the outset of the case.
Does the firm utilize experienced and supervised paralegals to keep costs down?
Paralegals have legal training and can do much of the legal work associated with cases in order to save the client money since they are not billed at as high of a rate as an attorney.

Questions you need to ask specific to Intellectual Property attorneys?

What is your technical background?
Patents are written in a technical and scientific manner so the person writing the patent needs to be skilled in the area specific to your patent in most cases. For example, if you are seeking a patent on a computer component, you would not want a biochemist drafting your patent over an electrical engineer
Approximately how many patents/trademarks have you filed annually and what is your approximate success rate?
Patents and trademarks go through long processes to be approved by the United State Patent and Trademark Office so you want to know how successful an attorney has been in going through the process before you get started.
What is your experience in litigation?

Often people will challenge the validity or the use of a patent or trademark so you want to make sure that the Intellectual Property attorney that you select can also defend your work.
Finding the right attorney for you can seem overwhelming but it is possible to get the right person for the job. Using this basic checklist will get you off on the right foot.

Did You Know?

In 1870 Thomas Adams was working with the Mexican President, Antonio López de Santa Ana to create a cheaper alternative to the then expensive rubber tire. They were using rubber from the Chicle tree. After a year of unsuccessful experiments, Adams gave up on the idea of Chicle based rubber. Instead, he recalled that Santa Ana and the population of Mexico enjoyed chewing on the chicle sap. So, he used the same chicle sap to create a marketable chewing gum that was different from the paraffin wax gum that was being sold in the United States at the time. He created the first modern chewing gum and molded them into small gumballs with colorful wrappers. The gum was a success!

News

Congratulations to GlobeChat and their Founder, Kevin Strom for being selected as “Finalist – 2017 OCTANe High-Tech Innovator of The Year”. GlobeChat enables people to communicate with others anywhere in the world with video, photos, text, voice-to-text, and audio files on Android, Apple and Windows mobile devices, as well as tablets, laptops and desktops. The platform translates languages real-time within private one- to-one, private group as well as public chat environments allowing for seamless interaction – each person receives messages in their native language regardless of the language of the sender. GlobeChat offers an innovative search feature allowing a user to easily filter others globally based on age, gender, orientation, religion, political affiliation, education, career, interests, commonalities and more with the results immediately displayed on a colorful map of the world. Since launch on April 1st, 2016 GlobeChat has now spread to 152 Countries. In the first year since launch, GlobeChat has received 10 other awards in addition to this most recent one. Congratulations!

www.globechat.com

Welcome Summer!

Summertime is upon us and people everywhere are getting ready to hit the beach. Pack up your picnic lunches, your volleyballs, your beach towels, but don’t forget your chair! Beach chairs make it so much more comfortable to sit in the sand and watch the waves roll in. You can get a beach chair that reclines, one that sits high, one that sits low, or one that lies flat so you can get an even tan. Today’s patent is from an early beach chair. This one featured a footrest and a built in shade. This patent doesn’t look all that different from chairs you can purchase today!