Trademark row from across the pond

BBC News reports about the uproar caused by Glastonbury Festivals Limited application to register GLASTONBURY with the Office of Harmonization.

Tags: trademark, harmonization, europe, glastonbury

Brainstorming for trademarks or company names?

Stuck trying to come up with a trademark or service mark to identify your product or service? Or in a bind naming your company? Rivkin & Associates has a nice little booklet titled "33 Tips & Tactics for Generating Nmaes," a 28 page booklet packed with creative prods, techniques and tools.

Best of all, it's free.

To get your FREE Copy,
Send a #10 envelope with two ounces of postage to:

"33 Tips"
Rivkin & Associates Inc.
PO Box 188
Glen Rock, NJ 07452-0188

And of course, before you commit to the name you choose for your brand or company, please make sure to conduct a trademark search. As stated in Tip No. 5, "Go for quantity:"

Don't fall in love with a short list of three or four possible names.

Develop lots of names.

In a typical trademark search, you'll lose at least 8 of every 10 names you generate.

(Sometimes more.)

And then, once you finally settle on a mark, consider applying for registration of your trademark. For more information, please feel free to contact us for help.

Books by Steve Rivkin

The Making of a Name: The Inside Story of the Brands We Buy

IdeaWise: How to Transform Your Ideas

Differentiate or Die: Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition

The New Positioning: The Latest on the World's #1 Business Strategy

The Power Of Simplicity: A Management Guide to Cutting Through the Nonsense and Doing Things Right

Tags: naming, branding, brands, trademark, search, registration

Benefits of Federal Trademark Registration

In the United States, trademark rights arise through use as a trademark. There is no legal requirement to register a trademark. With that said, there are multiple benefits to having a trademark registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”).

Trademark registration is perhaps the most important piece of a company’s trademark protection program. Without federal trademark registration, a company relies solely upon common law rights in the geographic area in which it uses the trademark. Most significantly, without federal registration, a latecomer (also known as a “junior user”) may register a mark exactly the same or similar to the company’s trademark. This registration by a junior user may block the expansion of the company’s use of its trademark in other areas or may block the company’s later attempt to register its trademark.

That’s definitely a hard pill to swallow for the company which could have averted these problems with early registration. If the company had registered it prior to the junior user, the PTO would have denied the junior user’s same or confusingly similar trademark. In addition, the company would always have rights superior to the junior user, and would not be blocked in its expansion plans.

In addition to the above, trademark registration benefits include:

• Trademark registration provides constructive notice of the registration, and defeats a claim that an infringer did not know that the company’s trademark was registered;


• Federal trademark registration establishes federal jurisdiction to file a trademark infringement action in federal court;


• Federal trademark registration may be the basis to be awarded treble (triple) damages;


• Federal trademark registration establishes the presumptive right of the trademark owner to use the trademark throughout the country;

• The presumptive right can become incontestable with five years of continuous use and the filing of and acceptance of a declaration of incontestability;

• Other companies that conduct a trademark search prior to adopting a trademark would most likely not adopt a mark exactly the same or similar to the company’s trademark;

• A registration on the Principal Register (but not Supplemental Register) may be deposited at the U.S. Custom Service to bar importation of goods bearing an infringing trademark;

• A registration on the Principal Register can be the basis for the seizure of counterfeit or infringing merchandise;

• A federal trademark registration may be used as collateral to secure a loan because a trademark registration is viewed as the embodiment of the goodwill symbolized by the trademark; and

• For those companies that wish to expand internationally, the date of registration may be used as the priority date in other countries, if they are a member of an international treaty, such as the Paris Convention.

Tags: trademark, registration, benefits