While every business recognizes the need to protect its intellectual property, it’s easy to get confused about what each type of intellectual property protects. Even major newspapers often get it wrong, saying a company has a patent on using a word or copyright on a technique or process. » Read More

United States law offers four types of protection for intellectual property, namely patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. Only two of these, patents and trade secrets, can grant you the protection of ideas. Besides this superficial similarity, patents and trade secrets are different, both in the kinds of ideas they can protect and in the responsibilities of the owner of the patent or trade secret. » Read More

Twenty-three years after the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), the social media landscape remains a “Wild Wild West” for copyright owners. Though not afforded the attention attracted by the spread of misinformation on these platforms, copyright enforcement can be an uphill battle for copyright owners, as social media companies struggle to enforce rules of conduct for the enormous output of third-party content they host. » Read More

According to the U.S. patenting courts, “new recipes or formulas for cooking food which involve the addition or elimination of common ingredients, or for treating them in ways which differ from the former practice, do not amount to invention merely because … no one else ever did the particular thing upon which the applicant asserts his right to a patent.” » Read More

Utility patents protect ideas and inventions, design patents protect the ornamental aspects of a product, and trademarks protect the exclusive consumer association with your company that your brands, logos, or designs evoke. Despite the differences in these types of intellectual property (“IP”), lawsuits involving patents and trademarks have striking similarities and crucial differences. » Read More

Last week, I was fortunate to attend the Specialty Food Association’s Business Summit, a two-day conference in Chicago featuring essential tips and best practices for how to grow a specialty food company.  Over 150 food companies attended.  Our firm was honored to be one of the sponsors for the event, as you can see from the photo of our table at the opening night reception below. » Read More

In In re Jeffrey Butscher, Serial No. 87572095, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) reversed the Examiner’s refusal to permit the trademark registration of the mark CANNABIS CANNIBALS for “entertainment services, namely, an ongoing series featuring animated cannabis smoking cannibals provided through network or cable TV and the internet.”  » Read More

When a restaurant name is licensed, how does the owner properly compute a trademark royalty?  Should a higher royalty be set for a famous mark?  These issues were decided recently by the New York Supreme Court in Ganzi, Gary C. et al. » Read More

In a blog post earlier this year, I wrote about the legal haze in seeking U.S. trademark registrations for trademark owners of cannabis-related goods and services.  While seeking federal trademark registration is undoubtedly challenging, the hurdles are not a complete bar to registration.  » Read More

Last week, my partners, Danielle DeFilippis and Deanna Koestel, and I had the pleasure of attending The New Jersey Food & Beverage Summit hosted by NJBIZ.  Our firm sponsored the event.  We enjoyed a series of informative panel discussions, as reported in our last post, as well as the exhibits put on by a wide range of food manufacturers, vendors, and students of food science.  » Read More