It seems to me that a description of a characteristic of the wine that is commonly used to describe wine that is “ready to drink” should not be protectable by trademark registration. Even though the examiner in this case thought the Mark shouldn’t be registered the TTAB granted the trademark PRÊT À BOIRE to Amuse […]
I am looking forward to taking a ride to wine trail country in Geneva, New York to talk about trademarks. Buffalo trademark attorney Barbara Piazza and I are scheduled to present a complementary educational seminar on trademark law and how it relates to the wine industry. This seminar is an extension of our educational blog […]
Registering a trademark can be vital to competing in the competition laden world of wine making. In fact, trademarks expand well beyond the wine industry into the alcohol industry as a whole. Because registered marks are so important to alcohol-based companies, they are always on the lookout for other producers who may be infringing on […]
The latest turn in wine-related trademark law comes from the recent Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) decision of In re AOP LLC. In this case, the TTAB rejected AOP LLC ‘s (the applicant) attempt to register the word mark “AOP” because the mark was both deceptive and mis-descriptive. What does AOP stand for?: Appellation […]
Licensing out Intellectual property can turn into a bit of a headache for even the most experienced patent attorney, let alone an independent inventor. Richard Raysman, Seth Ostrow, Kenneth Adler and Edward Pisacreta tackled this issue in their book Intellectual Property Licensing: Forms and Analysis. When asked about the purpose behind writing the book, author […]
![Trademark Opposition to “[ ]” Dismissed](https://www.lotempiolaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/TM-OPPOSITION-1.jpg "Trademark Opposition to “[ ]” Dismissed")
The Australian company Casella Wines, the winemaker of the popular wine Yellowtail® filed a trademark application for []. Yes that’s what they did, they applied for the trademark registration for just “the brackets.” If you look at some of their images online when you search their company you will see that most often when [yellow […]
Last night we continued on the wine trail and visited Niagara Falls Ontario Canada convention center for the Niagara Food & Wine Expo. Attorney Barbara Piazza and her spouse and my wife and I had a great night and tasted a variety of vintages. There were wineries from local Canadian regions and wines from all […]
Ordinarily you hear news about purses bearing counterfeit trademarks being passed off as original. But intellectual property isn’t the only thing has been counterfeited recently. Of the more celebrated trials over counterfeit wine is continuing in a federal courthouse in Manhattan this week. The lawsuit was brought against Eric Greenberg by William I. Koch, the […]
Protect your wine and label before the glasses are filled and put on the table. Throughout the history of our civilization wine has been associated with rituals and regions across the globe. The aromas, savors and spirits of wine are as vast and varied as the grapes, the growers, and wineries that produce, bottle and […]
I just put my most recent Ask the Patent Attorney video up on YouTube about what makes a strong trademark. When choosing a trademark a major factor to consider is distinctiveness. In the video (see below) we discuss the difference between a fanciful, arbitrary, suggestive, descriptive and generic mark. Too bad True Fit Corporation didn’t watch a similar video before choosing their name. […]