{"id":66,"date":"2016-01-03T09:00:33","date_gmt":"2016-01-03T14:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/?p=66"},"modified":"2015-12-18T10:42:02","modified_gmt":"2015-12-18T15:42:02","slug":"new-years-resolution-for-a-brand-new-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/?p=66","title":{"rendered":"New Year’s Resolution for a BRAND New Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new year is upon us, and we suggest that trademark owners make it a brand<\/strong><\/em> new year, by resolving to use their marks correctly going forward.\u00a0 Proper trademark use is important to\u00a0creating and maintaining trademark rights, and\u00a0the rules are relatively simple — just follow the ACID test: A<\/strong>djective, C<\/strong>onsistent, I<\/strong>dentified, and D<\/strong>istinctive.<\/p>\n

A mark is an adjective<\/strong> identifying a particular kind of product or service, and it should be used as such.\u00a0 A trademark should be paired with\u00a0a generic term for the product or service.\u00a0\u00a0“Buy an ACME\u2122 widget.” is\u00a0preferred over “Buy an ACME\u2122.”<\/p>\n

A mark should be used consistently<\/strong> so that it\u00a0is\u00a0more readily recognized by consumers.\u00a0 In\u00a0Reebok International Ltd. v. Kmart Corp.<\/em>, 849 F.Supp. 252, 31 USPQ2d\u00a0 1882 (S.D.N.Y.\u00a01994), the Court noted the limitations\u00a0on the strength of Reebok’s trade dress “because Reebok\u00a0has used the Stripecheck\u00a0inconsistently.”<\/p>\n

A mark should be identified<\/strong> as a mark and not a normal word.\u00a0 Registered marks should be identified with the \u00ae symbol, and unregistered marks with a \u2122.\u00a0 This is pretty straight-forward, but many trademark owners drop the ball\u00a0when the mark appears multiple time on a package or advertisement.\u00a0 Should the mark be identified every<\/em> time it appears?\u00a0 Yes is should.\u00a0 However at the very least the most prominent use of the mark should be identified on every “sight” – each page or each face of the package.\u00a0 That way\u00a0every one encountering the mark\u00a0will be apprised of its trademark status.<\/p>\n

Finally, the a mark should be used distinctively<\/strong>.\u00a0 The mark should stand out from other words in\u00a0an advertisement or on\u00a0a package.\u00a0 The mark should be\u00a0bigger or bolder or\u00a0in color.\u00a0Anything that draws attention to the fact that the mark is special.<\/p>\n

Applying the ACID<\/strong> test to your\u00a0trademark use will help you build and maintain strong trademark rights.\u00a0 \u00a0This year resolve to use your marks properly, and make this a BRAND<\/strong><\/em> new year!<\/p>\n

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A new year is upon us, and we suggest that trademark owners make it a brand new year, by resolving to use their marks correctly going forward.\u00a0 Proper trademark use is important to\u00a0creating and maintaining trademark rights, and\u00a0the rules are … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}