OBTAINING EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS IN YOUR FASHION DESIGNS

Fashion designs can be protected through trademark law, copyright law and patent law.

Trademark Law

Trademark law can grant indefinite exclusive rights to a nonfunctional product design. That design cannot be the subject of a utility patent, however. If it was, it would be functional. It also (a) cannot be promoted as improving the function, operation or ease of use of a product, (b) cannot be the result of a simpler or more inexpensive manufacturing process, (c) cannot be essential to the use or purpose of the product or (d) affect the cost or quality of the product.

If a product design meets these conditions, and the product bearing the design is used in interstate or foreign commerce, the design can be registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office on the Supplemental Register. A Supplemental Registration will put subsequent trademark applicants and others on notice that you are claiming trademark rights to your design, and later trademark applicants will be barred from registering confusingly similar designs for related products.

If, additionally, you can prove to the satisfaction of the United States Patent and Trademark Office that your design is distinctive, it may be registered on the Principal Register. A trademark registration on the Principal Register is prima facie evidence of your ownership of and exclusive right to use the registered design and it can be used to get the Customs and Border Protection Agency to stop the importation of competing products featuring your design. It will also place subsequent applicants and others on notice that your design is claimed as a trademark and bar later applicants from registering confusingly similar designs with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

In order to prove to the satisfaction of the Patent Office that your product is distinctive, you will need to submit to that Office sales figures and advertising expenditures for your product  design as well as samples of your product advertising that highlight the design. This advertising should call attention to your design in a manner which will cause customers to recognize it as your trademark. If your sales figures and advertising expenditures prove sufficiently substantial; if you advertise and promote your product in relevant trade and customer publications, online and at trade shows, and if this advertising draws attention to your design, you may be able to obtain recognition and protection of your design as a registered trademark on the Principal Register.

Two examples of how this can be done are set out below. Levi Strauss & Co. registered the combination of the shape of a pocket, the distinctive stitching on that pocket and the placement of a tab on that pocket as U.S Registration No. 2,791,156 for “Pants, jeans, shorts, skirts and jackets.” Tommy Hilfiger registered a striped V-shaped insert facing sewn into the neck and collar portion of its shirts, sweaters, T-shirts, sweat shirts, vests and jackets as U.S. Trademark Registration No. 1,994,451 for those goods.

Copyright Law

It is the policy of the U.S. Copyright Office that “Designs for useful articles such as vehicular bodies, wearing apparel, household appliances and the like are not protected by copyright.”

However, the Supreme Court decided in  Star Athletica, LLC v. Varsity Brands, Inc., 137 S. Ct. 1002 (2017) that if a design of a useful article “can be perceived as a two- or three-dimensional work of art separate from the useful article”and was sufficiently creative to “qualify as a protectable pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work,” i.e., it could be imagined separately from the useful article into which it is incorporated, then it would be eligible for copyright protection.

The Court held in that decision that the two-dimensional applied art found on the surface of cheerleading uniforms could be protected by copyright. However, that protection was limited to the surface designs on the uniform and did not not extend to garments that were identical in shape, cut, or dimensions to the uniforms at issue in that case. In addition, note that the test for copyright infringement is substantial similarity and registration is a prerequisite to asserting an infringement claim.

Design Patents

Design patents protect the ornamental features of a functional design and provide exclusive rights in those features for a period of fifteen years starting from the date of issuance of the patent. You must file your patent application with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office within one year from the date that your design was publicly disclosed. The design must be novel and non-obvious in the relevant industry to qualify for patent protection. Only the appearance of the garment may be protected and not its structural or functional features. The protection obtained is against the making, using, offering for sale or selling of a similar design, one which an ordinary observer familiar with competitive products would be deceived into believing is the same as the patented design. Minor differences between the designs would not prevent a finding of infringement.

My firm can protect your fashion designs through trademark and copyright protection and works with licensed patent attorneys who can protect those design through design patent registration.

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Registering Your Slogan as a Trademark

Slogans are registrable as trademarks as long as they are not merely informational or a common laudatory phrase or statement that would ordinarily be used in business or in the particular trade or industry. See Section 1209.03(s) of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office’s Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure. Examples of such laudatory phrases or statements that would ordinarily be used in business and which have been refused registration included THE BEST BEER IN AMERICA, PROUDLY MADE IN USA & WHY PAY MORE!

Slogans are never registrable as copyrights because they contain an insufficient amount of authorship.

A copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States to the authors of “original works of authorship” that are fixed in a tangible form of expression and protects such works as literary works, computer programs, musical works, pictorial, graphic and sculptural works, motion pictures and sound recordings while a trademark would be any word, name, symbol, device, or any combination, used or intended to be used to identify and distinguish the goods or services of one seller or provider from those of others, and to indicate the source of the goods or services.

Since this is election season, or in the case of impeachment, “unelection season,” I thought I would give you some examples of campaign slogans. There’s MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN used by our current White House occupant and, according to Wikipedia, Ronald Reagan as well in his 1980 Presidential campaign. See http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:CiteThisPage&page=List_of_U.S._presidential_campaign_slogans&id=925841367 There’s A FRESH START FOR AMERICA used by Pete Buttigieg, OUR FUTURE IS NOW used by Tim Ryan, whose future apparently is past as is his Presidential quest, there was John Kerry’s campaign slogan, LET AMERICA BE AMERICA AGAIN, and Hillary’s many slogans, including HILLARY FOR AMERICA, FORWARD TOGETHER, STRONGER TOGETHER, FIGHTING FOR US, I’M WITH HER & LOVE TRUMPS HATE. Since a trademark or “brand” is used to distinguish the goods of one seller from those of others and to indicate the source of those goods, having six brands to identify a single product would tend to dilute the effectiveness of that brand. Compare YES WE CAN & CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN used by Barack Obama in 2008.

To put politics aside, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN was federally registered by Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. in August of 2016 for bumper stickers, placards, banners, posters, pens, pamphlets, clothing, including baby clothing, campaign buttons, political campaign services, providing online information regarding political views, online and retail stores services, political fundraising, political blogs and a political website and online social networking services in the field of politics.

Not to be outdone Mr. Buttigieg has filed an application to register A FRESH START FOR AMERICA for stationery, stickers, bumper stickers, decals, posters, printed paper rally signs, paper banners, tote bags, blankets, hats, t-shirts, tank tops, sweaters, jackets, campaign buttons, political campaign services, namely, promoting public awareness of Pete Buttigieg as a candidate for public office and online retail store services featuring political campaign goods, namely, bumper stickers, posters, stationery, decals, campaign buttons, tote bags, blankets, throws, hats, t-shirts, tank tops, sweaters, jackets

Apparently, Elizabeth Warren hasn’t included in her plans a plan to register her slogan WIN WITH WARREN with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office nor has Joe Biden filed an application to register his slogan FOR EVERYONE with that Office but Mark Zuckerberg and his wife through their Chan Zuckerberg Initiative have federally registered A FUTURE FOR EVERYONE for their philanthropic services, for financing and capital investment services, for the design and development of software and data analytics tools, and for promoting public awareness in the fields of health, medical and scientific research, computer technology, literacy, immigration reform, child welfare, sustainability, and community building by means of public advocacy; promoting the exchange of information and resources within the scientific and medical research community and the technology industry to achieve advances in the field of health, medical and scientific research, computer technology, literacy, immigration reform, child welfare, sustainability, and community building; business consulting in the field of philanthropy, charities, non-profits, donors, and operations.

Oh, and the President has a federal trademark application pending for KEEP AMERICA GREAT for the same services for which he previously registered MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.

So, from a branding perspective, how is a political campaign different from an advertising campaign? Apparently, from a trademark perspective, it isn’t and picking a good brand identify for your political campaign much like any other product is key to marketing that product, excuse me, candidate, successfully, and, to that end, nothing beats a good protectable slogan.

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IS LITIGATION A VIABLE REMEDY IN TRADEMARK DISPUTES?

Remedies in Trademark Litigation

In trademark litigation, a plaintiff can:

(1) potentially obtain injunctive relief, including a court order that the defendant cease its objectionable conduct, take affirmative steps to distinguish its products or services from that of the plaintiff, place corrective advertising or recall its product,

(2) obtain defendant’s profits, its own lost profits, damages and attorney’s fees. So

Why not litigate?

Most cases settle and the Plaintiff usually loses!

85% of trademark cases are either resolved through settlement negotiations or a default judgment. See http://abovethelaw.com/2017/12/3-lessons-on-data-from-trademark-cases/ In fact, according to one study of lawsuits in general, plaintiffs succeed at trial in less than 5% of filed cases. See http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1202&context=facpub

When litigation is necessary

Yet, litigation can sometimes be necessary, e.g., if you’re the Rolling Stones and you become aware on the night before your tour stops in Chicago that a truckload of counterfeit merchandise bearing your trademark or a poor copy of it is about to hit the streets the day of your concert. In order to stop the sale of that merchandise, you will need to go to court and get a temporary restraining order barring those sales. Otherwise, by the time you “lawyer up,” the unauthorized merchandise will be sold, and the Stones will be on to their next stop. Time will not be on their side and they will get no satisfaction if they don’t go to court ahead of time.

Settlement is a cheaper alternative to litigation

Litigation is expensive. In a trademark infringement case involving identical marks where I represented the defendant, I sought to engage a lawyer who had previously represented another defendant against that same plaintiff in a case involving the same mark. He requested a $100,000.00 retainer for his services. In a domain name dispute where my client refused to settle and I turned the matter over to litigation counsel, his legal fees ran over $100K. In the latter case he could have settled for under $20,000. In the former case, we decided to settle. The plaintiff got injunctive relief out of court in that my client had to cease and desist from using the mark, pull the infringing product off of store shelves and have it destroyed and pay monetary damages in an amount significantly less than that retainer amount plus a few thousand dollars in attorneys fees. In a copyright licensing matter that I handled for a defendant the plaintiff asked for close to half a million dollars. In settlement, we obtained an assignment from the plaintiff of the rights at issue in exchange for a payment of less than a tenth of the amount claimed. In a copyright infringement case where I represented a defendant and the plaintiff asked for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages, while my client had to cease the production, marketing and sale of the alleged infringing products at issue, it got to sell off its inventory of those products before hand and pay a little over a tenth of that amount at settlement.

It works both ways. Where a defendant was using my client’s registered trademark to identify its similar products online, we succeeded in getting the defendant to stop using the mark at issue and actually rename its similar product without going to court. Where another defendant was using another client’s registered trademark to identify the same services that my client performed, that defendant agreed to restrict its use of that mark to use on unrelated products, to drop its federal trademark application for that identical mark and modify its advertising to avoid confusion in the future. In another case involving a major national retailer selling the same products as my client under its registered trademark, it agreed to cease using my client’s mark and rebrand those goods.

You can get the same relief by settling a case as you can by litigating it

So, without entering a courthouse and paying the costs of taking depositions, engaging in electronic discovery or lawyer travel and lodging, it’s possible to get relief in the form of an injunction against further manufacture or sale of the subject product, monetary relief and attorney’s fees, recall of a product and even corrective advertising.

But it’s not just the cost.

The difficulties at getting at the truth

As noted above, there’s also the uncertainty and the difficulty in winning a case at trial to consider.

In trademark cases, establishing an intent to copy is of significant assistance in proving likelihood of confusion. In my first trademark infringement case in private practice a major national consumer products company not only simulated our client’s product’s shape but placed their similar shaped product on store shelves immediately adjected to our client’s product. Between myself and my partner, we journeyed to Springfield, Missouri, Rochester, New York, Northern New Jersey and Palo Alto, California taking depositions in an effort to search for evidence of intent. We came up empty. To quote Robert Mueller, “When a subject of an investigation obstructs that investigation or lies to investigators, it strikes at the core of their government’s effort to find the truth and hold wrongdoers accountable.” See http://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/29/robert-mueller-statement-russia-investigation-text-transcript-1346453 When I was sitting on the other side of the table I was advised to tell deponents, unless they remembered the exact details of some event, not to guess or assume that certain events took place but respond with “I do not recall.” I’m not suggesting that the deponents in my infringement case lied; only that getting at the truth in litigation can be a long, slow, expensive slog that can be avoided by having some case law on your side and making a deal.

It sure beats the 5% odds noted above.

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Beverly Hills Police Playing Copyrighted Music While Being Filmed by Citizens to Avoid Footage Being Uploaded to Social Media

Beverly Hills police are playing copyrighted music during interactions with citizens in order to block those citizens’ videos of those interactions from being uploaded to social media. See https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvxb94/is-this-beverly-hills-cop-playing-sublimes-santeria-to-avoid-being-livestreamed

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Selecting a Trademark and Creating A Brand Identity

When you create a brand identity, you should think of the trademark that you adopt to identify your product or service and distinguish it from your competitors’ products and services as one tool among others in the toolbox that you use to get purchasers to buy your product or service. Those other tools may include your advertising, how you display your product or service in the marketplace, and how you relate to your customers.

For example, if you are selling beer to men in their twenties, that sector of consumers who usually buy beer, you want to get their attention.  If sex is on men’s minds a good part of the time, then sex is probably a good way to get their attention and, therefore, beer ads frequently display very attractive women showing significant amounts of bare skin in close proximity to bottles of that frothy beverage.

If you are selling frozen pizza, television or print advertising stating that that product is as good as pizzeria pizza will likely bring your pizza to the buyer’s attention but it probably won’t close the sale.  Most pizza consumers who eat pizza out likely assume that frozen pizza is a pale imitation of the real thing.  Therefore, you will need something more to close the sale, to get them to buy your product.  Here, placing the product at the end of the aisle in the supermarket, introducing it at a discount, or providing coupons to the buyer will help close the sale.

And if the product you’re offering isn’t pizza but is instead a new automobile brand from a country that isn’t known for manufacturing automobiles that are sold in the U.S., say China?  Buyers will be justifiably concerned whether the Chinese, who have not been manufacturing cars for export to the United States as long as the Japanese, have the same level of expertise in doing so.  So, how do you get over that hurdle?  Your car make, in the beginning, will not have a good reputation.  It won’t have a bad reputation either, rather, it will have no reputation at all.  So what do you do?  You offer the car buyer a long term and comprehensive warranty on the car, promising to fix the car for free.  By doing this you can immediately tag the product with a brand identity, that of a manufacturer that stands behind its product.

Finally, how you relate to your customers is important.  Suppose you sell a commodity; cellular phone service or airline service, for example, where you have several competitors.  You can compete on price but, if you do so, you run the risk that a competitor will undercut your price and grab your customers.  Or you can make the experience of using your product more enjoyable.  In the case of both cell phones and airlines, one way to do that is to make television available to your customers as part of your product, as both Verizon and Jet Blue have.  However, if you leave your customers sitting in a jetliner for numerous hours out on the runway going nowhere, the entertainment offered by television will soon fade to black as may the goodwill that your brand has appreciated over the years.

Whatever you do to sell your product, you need to call it something.  In selecting a trademark, you need to pick a mark that others in your business are not using.  Otherwise your purchasers may buy your competitor’s product when they mean to buy your product or vice versa and more than likely your competitors will sue you.  Then you should pick a mark that will help sell your product.  Here, you can go two ways; you can pick a mark that describes a desirable feature of your product or you can pick an arbitrary or fanciful mark.

If you go with a descriptive mark, that mark will go to work right away, on its own, and help you sell your product.  For example, suppose you offer an allergy medication that doesn’t make you sleepy and you want to extend that brand to an allergy medication that you take at night that does make you sleepy and to distinguish between the two products you add P.M. to the brand name.  P.M. merely describes when you would take that medication, that is, at night, and therefore, that trademark would be a weak one.  From a marketing standpoint your adoption of such a mark would be fast acting and you could get a lot of initial bang for your marketing bucks;  it would not take a lot of advertising other than putting P.M. on your packaging to identify your product to consumers as a nighttime remedy.  However, because it would be a descriptive mark, your competitors could adopt the same or a similar mark and once this occurs, you will need to come up with some other marketing magic to convince customers that your product is better.

On the other hand, you could select an arbitrary or fanciful mark.  A fanciful mark would be a coined word such as Exxon.  An arbitrary mark would be a mark such as Apple which when it is used on computers or personal music players means nothing but has all the meaning in the world when it is applied to fruit.  Initially, when you select such a mark, it would have no immediate significance to consumers.  You would affix it to your product and display it in your advertising and it would, by itself, accomplish nothing in selling your product other than identifying that product as coming from you and not your competitors.  But use the other tools mentioned above to build a strong brand recognition for your product and once consumers recognize your product as working better, looking better or lasting longer than your competitors’ products, that mark will become easily remembered and your rights in it more readily enforced as a fanciful or arbitrary trademark is given greater protection by the courts not only against competitors using the same mark on the same products but against competitors using the same mark on related and, in some cases, if that mark becomes famous, unrelated products.

So what route should you take?  Should you select a descriptive mark for its immediate marketing benefits or a fanciful or arbitrary mark?  You decide, but here are a few examples of fanciful or arbitrary marks; APPLE, STARBUCK’S, GOOGLE, AMAZON, YAHOO, VERIZON, and here are some not so fanciful marks; GENERAL MOTORS, NORTHWEST AIRLINES, UNITED STATES STEEL, TOYS ‘R US.

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OPPOSER HAS BURDEN TO DEMONSTRATE NON-USE OF THIRD-PARTY REGISTRATIONS TO REBUT CLAIM OPPOSER’S MARK IS WEAK

See https://www.inta.org/perspectives/law-practice/united-states-burden-on-opposer-to-establish-non-use-of-third-party-registrations/

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SUPREME COURT HOLDS DEFENDANT NOT LIABLE FOR TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT INVOLVING ACTS UNDERTAKEN ABROAD

SEE https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-tosses-hetronics-96-million-trademark-win-against-european-2023-06-29/

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WHY USING A ROBOT TO WRITE YOUR BRIEF (A.K.A.) CHATGPT CAN LEAD TO TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCES-A TALE FROM THE LEGAL TWILIGHT ZONE (Thanks to the 5/27/2023 New York Times)

The lawsuit began like so many others: A man named Roberto Mata sued the airline Avianca, saying he was injured when a metal serving cart struck his knee during a flight to Kennedy International Airport in New York.

When Avianca asked a Manhattan federal judge to toss out the case, Mr. Mata’s lawyers vehemently objected, submitting a 10-page brief that cited more than half a dozen relevant court decisions. There was Martinez v. Delta Air Lines, Zicherman v. Korean Air Lines and, of course, Varghese v. China Southern Airlines, with its learned discussion of federal law and “the tolling effect of the automatic stay on a statute of limitations.”

There was just one hitch: No one — not the airline’s lawyers, not even the judge himself — could find the decisions or the quotations cited and summarized in the brief.

That was because ChatGPT had invented everything.

The lawyer who created the brief, Steven A. Schwartz of the firm Levidow, Levidow & Oberman, threw himself on the mercy of the court on Thursday, saying in an affidavit that he had used the artificial intelligence program to do his legal research — “a source that has revealed itself to be unreliable.”

Mr. Schwartz, who has practiced law in New York for three decades, told Judge P. Kevin Castel that he had no intent to deceive the court or the airline. Mr. Schwartz said that he had never used ChatGPT, and “therefore was unaware of the possibility that its content could be false.”

He had, he told Judge Castel, even asked the program to verify that the cases were real.

It had said yes.

Mr. Schwartz said he “greatly regrets” relying on ChatGPT “and will never do so in the future without absolute verification of its authenticity.”

Judge Castel said in an order that he had been presented with “an unprecedented circumstance,” a legal submission replete with “bogus judicial decisions, with bogus quotes and bogus internal citations.” He ordered a hearing for June 8 to discuss potential sanctions.

As artificial intelligence sweeps the online world, it has conjured dystopian visions of computers replacing not only human interaction, but also human labor. The fear has been especially intense for knowledge workers, many of whom worry that their daily “The discussion now among the bar is how to avoid exactly what this case describes,” Mr. Gillers said. “You cannot just take the output and cut and paste it into your court filings.” may not be as rarefied as the world thinks — but for which the world pays billable hours.

Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics professor at New York University School of Law, said the issue was particularly acute among lawyers, who have been debating the value and the dangers of A.I. software like ChatGPT, as well as the need to verify whatever information it provides.

The real-life case of Roberto Mata v. Avianca Inc. shows that white-collar professions may have at least a little time left before the robots take over.

It began when Mr. Mata was a passenger on Avianca Flight 670 from El Salvador to New York on Aug. 27, 2019, when an airline employee bonked him with the serving cart, according to the lawsuit. After Mr. Mata sued, the airline filed papers asking that the case be dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired.

In a brief filed in March, Mr. Mata’s lawyers said the lawsuit should continue, bolstering their argument with references and quotes from the many court decisions that have since been debunked.

Soon, Avianca’s lawyers wrote to Judge Castel, saying they were unable to find the cases that were cited in the brief.

When it came to Varghese v. China Southern Airlines, they said they had “not been able to locate this case by caption or citation, nor any case bearing any resemblance to it.”

They pointed to a lengthy quote from the purported Varghese decision contained in the brief. “The undersigned has not been able to locate this quotation, nor anything like it in any case,” Avianca’s lawyers wrote.

Indeed, the lawyers added, the quotation, which came from Varghese itself, cited something called Zicherman v. Korean Air Lines Co. Ltd., an opinion purportedly handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in 2008. They said they could not find that, either.

Judge Castel ordered Mr. Mata’s attorneys to provide copies of the opinions referred to in their brief. The lawyers submitted a compendium of eight; in most cases, they listed the court and judges who issued them, the docket numbers and dates.

The copy of the supposed Varghese decision, for example, is six pages long and says it was written by a member of a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit. But Avianca’s lawyers told the judge that they could not find that opinion, or the others, on court dockets or legal databases.

Bart Banino, a lawyer for Avianca, said that his firm, Condon & Forsyth, specialized in aviation law and that its lawyers could tell the cases in the brief were not real. He added that they had an inkling a chatbot might have been involved.

Mr. Schwartz did not respond to a message seeking comment, nor did Peter LoDuca, another lawyer at the firm, whose name appeared on the brief.

Mr. LoDuca said in an affidavit this week that he did not conduct any of the research in question, and that he had “no reason to doubt the sincerity” of Mr. Schwartz’s work or the authenticity of the opinions.

ChatGPT generates realistic responses by making guesses about which fragments of text should follow other sequences, based on a statistical model that has ingested billions of examples of text pulled from all over the internet. In Mr. Mata’s case, the program appears to have discerned the labyrinthine framework of a written legal argument, but has populated it with names and facts from a bouillabaisse of existing cases.

Judge Castel, in his order calling for a hearing, suggested that he had made his own inquiry. He wrote that the clerk of the 11th Circuit had confirmed that the docket number printed on the purported Varghese opinion was connected to an entirely different case.

Calling the opinion “bogus,” Judge Castel noted that it contained internal citations and quotes that, in turn, were nonexistent. He said that five of the other decisions submitted by Mr. Mata’s lawyers also appeared to be fake.

On Thursday, Mr. Mata’s lawyers offered affidavits containing their version of what had happened.

Mr. Schwartz wrote that he had originally filed Mr. Mata’s lawsuit in state court, but after the airline had it transferred to Manhattan’s federal court, where Mr. Schwartz is not admitted to practice, one of his colleagues, Mr. LoDuca, became the attorney of record. Mr. Schwartz said he had continued to do the legal research, in which Mr. LoDuca had no role.

Mr. Schwartz said that he had consulted ChatGPT “to supplement” his own work and that, “in consultation” with it, found and cited the half-dozen nonexistent cases. He said ChatGPT had provided reassurances.

“Is varghese a real case,” he typed, according to a copy of the exchange that he submitted to the judge.

“Yes,” the chatbot replied, offering a citation and adding that it “is a real case.”

Mr. Schwartz dug deeper.

“What is your source,” he wrote, according to the filing.

“I apologize for the confusion earlier,” ChatGPT responded, offering a legal citation.

“Are the other cases you provided fake,” Mr. Schwartz asked.

ChatGPT responded, “No, the other cases I provided are real and can be found in reputable legal databases.”

But, alas, they could not be.

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THESE ARE THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW AND CORPORATE LAW SERVICES THAT MY FIRM PROVIDES

These are the Intellectual Property Law and Corporate Law services that my firm provides:

Corporate Formation

We will conduct a search and advise you as to whether your proposed corporate name is also available as a domain name.

We will advise you as to which domain names you should register to protect yourself against cybersquatting.

We will conduct a trademark search to determine if your proposed corporate name is available for your use as a trademark and is registrable with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, thus offering you national protection for that name.

We can incorporate your entity in Illinois as a corporation or form it as a limited liability company as well as advise you as to which entity form best meets your needs.

Internet Services

We can prepare the necessary language for your website to protect you against potential liability, set forth terms of use and provide your customers and clients with the necessary privacy policy language.

Where appropriate, we can assist you to register your domain names with the Library of Congress, thereby providing you with additional protection against potential infringement claims.

If an infringement problem does arise, we can take action against the infringer to stop those infringing activities as well as defend you against claims of infringement arising from your adoption and use of your domain name.

Trademark Services

We can assist you in the creation of strong brand names and logos to offer you the broadest protection for your corporate, product and service names and logos, including conducting searches to ensure that those names and logos are available for your use and registration as trademarks and service marks.

We can register your corporate and product names, including your logos and trade dress, as appropriate and necessary to provide you with nationwide protection for those names, logos and trade dress as well as register those names and logos abroad, if necessary, to protect your names and logos against foreign infringement.

We can maintain your existing portfolio of registered and applied-for service marks and trademarks.

We can take action against potential infringers of your marks as well as defend you against claims of infringement, including trademark, service mark and trade dress infringement.

Trade Secret Services

We can create a plan to ensure that your vital corporate information, including marketing plans, product development plans, supplier and customer information, formulas, data, etc. are kept confidential and protectible as trade secrets.

To do this, we can provide you with the necessary Employment Agreements, Confidentiality Agreements, Non-Disclosure Agreements, etc. to protect that information and ensure that you have a legal remedy if that information falls into the wrong hands.

Copyright Services

We can register your computer software, writings, musical compositions, art, photographs and product designs, to the extent that U.S. law may protect the latter, with the U.S. Copyright Office so as to provide you with the right to sue for infringement of these works should infringements occur.

We can defend you against claims of copyright infringement of such works as well as assert such claims as necessary to protect your rights.

Working with Patent Counsel, we can assist you to determine how you may best protect your products, designs, and formulations against infringement through either copyright, patent or trademark protection.

Other Legal Services

We can prepare by-laws for your newly-formed corporation or an operating agreement for your limited liability company.

Should you decide to sell your business, we can prepare both asset and stock purchase agreements, where appropriate to effectuate said sale.

As noted above, we can prepare a wide range of business agreements for your use, including but not limited to Employment Agreements, Confidentiality Agreements, Non-Disclosure Agreements, Operating Agreements, License Agreements, Manufacturing Agreements, Vendor Agreements, Internet Provider Agreements, Supplier Agreements, Model Releases, Settlement Agreements, etc.

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WHO NEEDS TRADEMARKS?

Who needs trademarks? Apparently smokers do!

Who would have thought the Marlboro Man could have discouraged smoking; at least of other brands!

In September 2020 the journal NATURE published a study of the effectiveness of Australia’s 2012 law requiring that cigarettes be packaged without any branding in plain boxes. It compared tobacco consumption in Australia with that in New Zealand which allowed branded packaging.

It found that after the plain packaging law was passed Aussies increased their cigarette consumption by 6.5 cigarettes per week compared with their Kiwi neighbors. Despite the science Singapore has now also required that cigarettes be sold in brandless packaging and Chile has done the same for snack foods. When Ireland required that cigarettes be sold in brandless packaging, the consumption of counterfeit tobacco increased.

What this means is that trademarks, in whatever form they take; whether a brand name, a distinctive color or image on a container, or the shape of that container, give consumers a choice. And that choice includes the choice not to buy a product. If a store doesn’t carry a brand that they like, they will leave that store and either go to another store to make their purchase or postpone that purchase. If they don’t have a choice; and there’s is only one brand of cigarettes available, given the addictive nature of nicotine, they won’t walk away…they’ll buy the cigarettes as it doesn’t matter what they buy, even illegally sold cigarettes….they just want to get some smokes.

So, a better method of restricting smoking would be to carry brands that people desire but make it inconvenient to purchase them. This is the philosophy by which certain states forbid the sale of hard liquor in supermarkets and drug stores and others require that they be purchased in separate locations, necessitating an extra shopping trip. Other states go so far as to require that hard liquor be sold in “state stores,” stores operated by the government. By limiting where liquor is sold, it can also be taxed at a higher rate. In addition sales can be controlled.

Branding can also give a product an air of exclusivity. An example of this can be found in the branding of cannabis products which then can be sold at a premium price relative to other brands.

So, before you do any advertising, just picking the right name and package design can do a lot to set your product apart in the marketplace. Just remember to make sure that that trademark is available first, which is where I come in.

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Trademark Applicants (and their Attorneys)-USPTO Clamps down on Procrastinators-3 Month Deadline Imposed on Responses to Office Actions

Beginning on December 3, 2022, trademark applicants will have three months (with a possible three-month extension), instead of the current six months, to respond to office actions issued during the examination of a trademark application at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). This change only applies to office actions issued on or after December 3.

By shortening the response time, the USPTO intends to:

  • Decrease the time it takes to get a registration
  • Provide the flexibility to request additional time to respond to more complex office actions

This new response period will not apply to post-registration office actions on December 3, 2022. Changes to the post-registration response period will be implemented on October 7, 2023.

You must file your response by the deadline. You can calculate the three-month deadline from the “issue date” in the office action.

Your application will be abandoned if you don’t respond to your office action or request an extension on or before the three-month deadline. This means we will no longer process your applicatio

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RUSSIA ATTACKS McDONALD’S

McDonald’s is extremely popular among Russian consumers. Now its American parent has chosen to close its Russian outlets. In retaliation many of these outlets have become Uncle Vanya’s. McDonald’s trademark licenses have been expropriated and it has lost control over both its famous trademark and quality control over its menu and ingredients.

Now several applications have been filed with the government there using McDonald’s name or signature Golden Arches.

See https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/russia-mcdonald-s-logo-1.6389887

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THE SUPPLY CHAIN FIASCO & TRADEMARK PRACTICE

The current issues involving the supply chain carries consequences for trademark applicants and registrants. 

One of the biggest stories in the news lately has been the problems with the supply chain. See

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/22/business/shortages-supply-chain.html?smid=em-share for a summary of the issues involved. 

For trademark applicants and registrants here are some additional issues to be considered.

You decide to file an application based on Section 1(a) of the Trademark Act based on your use of your mark in commerce. Your mark has been displayed on labels affixed to your goods or on the packaging therefore in a manner in which customers are accustomed to seeing those goods marked with a trademark. See 37 C.F.R. sec. 2.56. To complete your application you must state a date of first use in commerce. The date of first use in commerce is the date when the goods were first sold or transported under the mark in a type of commerce that may be lawfully regulated by the U.S. Congress, See 15 U.S.C. sec. 1127. This could be either interstate commerce or commerce between the United States and a foreign country. 

But what if, because of a single case of Covid-19, your product for which you were seeking to file a U.S. Trademark Application for is sitting in a port in Ningbo, China, the world’s third busiest port. See https://fortune.com/2021/08/13/ningbo-port-closure-covid-china-shipping-backlog/ Of course, you can toss your Section 1(a) application out and apply to register your mark as an intent-to-use application, but as long as your product is sitting in Ningbo, it would be hard to demonstrate that that product and the mark that it bears is in commerce between the U.S. and China.  

In normal times, it would not be unusual to assume that that product would make it to the U.S. in less than two weeks at which time you would have a first date of use in commerce to support a Section 1(a) application, which would expedite your registration process, as within three months after that application is allowed by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office you would have your trademark registration and avoid the additional step of filing a statement of use which you would have to do with an intent-to-use application.

Once you have obtained a trademark registration by the end of both the 6th year subsequent to obtaining that registration and the 10th year subsequent to obtaining that registration, not including the six-month grace period, to retain that registration you must, under Section 8 of the Trademark Act, affirm that that mark is still being use on product sold or transported in commerce, e.g., in interstate commerce or in commerce with a foreign country.  Again, what do you do if your product is stuck in Ningbo or another foreign port near where that product is manufactured due to supply chain issues. 

“The purpose of Section 8 of the Trademark Act is to remove from the register those registrations that have become deadwood.   See Morehouse Mfg. Corp. v. J. Strickland & Co., 407 F.2d 881, 160 USPQ 715 (C.C.P.A. 1969) .  It is not intended, however, to cancel registrations because of a temporary interruption in the use of the mark due to circumstances beyond the control of the owner of the registration.   In re Moorman Mfg. Co.,203 USPQ 712 (Comm’r Pats. 1979).  Thus, if the mark is not in use in commerce but the owner believes the registration should not be cancelled, the owner may file an affidavit or declaration showing that nonuse is due to special circumstances that excuse the nonuse, and is not due to any intention to abandon the mark.  See 15 U.S.C. §1058(b)(2)Ex parte Kelley-How-Thomson Co., 118 USPQ 40 (Comm’r Pats. 1958). Section 1604.11 of the Patent Office’s Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure states, “Trade Embargo or Other Circumstance Beyond Owner’s Control.  Nonuse may be considered excusable where the owner of the registration is willing and able to continue use of the mark in commerce, but is unable to do so due to a trade embargo.”

While the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has stated that any trademark owner that has been impacted by COVID-19 resulting in a disruption in the use of a mark may make a claim for excusable nonuse on that basis, it is not clear that a claim based on a supply chain disruption, although indirectly caused by the pandemic would be accepted as a Covid claim. It may be that the “Trade Embargo” rationale is a better analogy.  “Affidavits or declarations should specify the reason for nonuse, the specific steps being taken to put the mark back in use, and any other relevant facts to support a finding of excusable nonuse.”

However, beware that if there has been a period of nonuse, even if it is beyond the trademark registrant’s control, that registrant will be barred from filing a Section 15 Declaration of Incontestability under the Trademark Act as such a filing requires an assertion that the registered mark was in continuous use in commerce for five consecutive years from the date of registration.

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Courtesy of Frank Bruni’s 9/30/21 New York Times Column

Scores of you have sent me emails that flag artful, whimsical and just plain eccentric business names that currently exist or once existed. As promised, I’ll occasionally share some of those.

This week’s winners:

A plumbing company in Ithaca, N.Y., called the Drain Brain (thanks to Christine Sheola of Ithaca for flagging this)

A therapeutic massage business in Aiken, S.C., called — you can see it coming! — My Aiken Body (Mary Azoy, Chapel Hill, N.C.)

A tailoring shop in Toronto called Boulevard of Broken Seams (Janet Sailian, Fort Myers Beach, Fla., and JoAnne Harrop, Toronto)

A tattoo removal service in Denver called What Were You Inking (Athalie White, Milton, Ga.)

A manicurist in Brooklyn, N.Y., called You’ve Got Nail (Will Everett, Queens, N.Y.)

A cafe in Oakland, Calif., called the Edible Complex (Sherri Hallgren, Andover, Mass.)

An Asian fusion restaurant in Rehoboth Beach, Del., called Saketumi (Jerry Graff, Ocean View, Del.)

Dozens of you have also sent in business names that, in a world even more playful and imaginative than ours, would exist. Those include:

An orthopedic shoe store called I Stand Corrected (Leslie Bell, Signal Mountain, Tenn.)

A restaurant showcasing a crab especially prevalent in the Pacific Northwest called Dungeness Liaisons (Dave Fisher, Olympia, Wash.)

Scores of you have sent me emails that flag artful, whimsical and just plain eccentric business names that currently exist or once existed. As promised, I’ll occasionally share some of those.

This week’s winners:

A plumbing company in Ithaca, N.Y., called the Drain Brain (thanks to Christine Sheola of Ithaca for flagging this)

A therapeutic massage business in Aiken, S.C., called — you can see it coming! — My Aiken Body (Mary Azoy, Chapel Hill, N.C.)

A tailoring shop in Toronto called Boulevard of Broken Seams (Janet Sailian, Fort Myers Beach, Fla., and JoAnne Harrop, Toronto)

A tattoo removal service in Denver called What Were You Inking (Athalie White, Milton, Ga.)

A manicurist in Brooklyn, N.Y., called You’ve Got Nail (Will Everett, Queens, N.Y.)

A cafe in Oakland, Calif., called the Edible Complex (Sherri Hallgren, Andover, Mass.)

An Asian fusion restaurant in Rehoboth Beach, Del., called Saketumi (Jerry Graff, Ocean View, Del.)

Dozens of you have also sent in business names that, in a world even more playful and imaginative than ours, would exist. Those include:

An orthopedic shoe store called I Stand Corrected (Leslie Bell, Signal Mountain, Tenn.)

A restaurant showcasing a crab especially prevalent in the Pacific Northwest called Dungeness Liaisons (Dave Fisher, Olympia, Wash.)


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It’s Not Easy Being Green-Eco-Friendly Issues in Branding & Marketing

Given the notoriety of recent events indicating a changing climate, e.g., heat waves, wildfires and the like, marketers will be tempted to promote the environmental friendliness of their products.

They may do this in how they brand their products, in their advertising material and on their labeling. When they do this, they need to be aware of the legal implications.

BRANDING:

The United States Patent & Trademark Office will refuse the registration of a mark if that mark is deceptive or deceptively misdescriptive. A deceptiveness refusal is an absolute bar to the registration of a trademark and evidence that that mark is distinctive will not overcome that refusal.

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has articulated the following test for whether a mark consists of or comprises deceptive matter:

  1. Is the term misdescriptive of the character, quality, function, composition or use of the goods?
  2. If so, are prospective purchasers likely to believe that the misdescription actually describes the goods?
  3. If so, is the misdescription likely to affect a significant portion of the relevant consumers’ decision to purchase the goods?

A deceptive mark may be comprised of: (1) a single deceptive term; (2) a deceptive term embedded in a composite mark that includes additional non-deceptive wording and/or design elements; (3) a term or a portion of a term that alludes to a deceptive quality, characteristic, function, composition, or use; (4) the phonetic equivalent of a deceptive term; or (5) the foreign equivalent of any of the above.

Deceptive marks may include marks that falsely describe the material content of a product and marks that are geographically deceptive.

However, marks containing a term identifying a material, ingredient, or feature should not be refused registration under if the mark in its entirety would not be perceived as indicating that the goods contained that material or ingredient.

In addition, formatives and other grammatical variations of a term may not necessarily be deceptive in relation to the relevant goods. For example, “silky” is defined, inter alia, as “resembling silk.” See The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Ed. 2000. Thus, a mark containing the term SILKY would not be considered deceptive (but might be unregistrable as a descriptive term. Dictionary definitions of such terms should be carefully reviewed to determine the significance the term would have to prospective purchasers. For example, although the term GOLD would be considered deceptive for jewelry not made of gold, the term GOLDEN would not be deceptive.

If the first two elements of the test set forth by the Federal Circuit above, i.e., whether a mark is misdescriptive of the goods/services and whether prospective purchasers are likely to believe the misdescription, are answered affirmatively, then the mark is deceptively misdescriptive of the goods/services under §2(e)(1) of the Trademark Act. That is, if the misdescription is not a material factor to the purchasing decision, then the basis for refusal would be not that the mark is deceptive but that the mark is deceptively misdescriptive of the goods.

Marks that have been refused registration on the ground of deceptive misdescriptiveness may be registrable upon a showing of acquired distinctiveness, or on the Supplemental Register if appropriate. Similarly, marks that contain registrable matter in addition to deceptively misdescriptive components can be registered with a disclaimer of the deceptively misdescriptive matter, when appropriate. 

LABELING GUIDELINES:

Examples of deceptive or deceptively misdecriptive brands that promote environmental friendliness may be suggested by looking at the Federal Trade Commission’s “Green Guides” which cover product labeling and advertising. See https://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/attachments/press-releases/ftc-issues-revised-green-guides/greenguidessummary.pdf

Here is a brief summary of the FTC’s rules:

Marketers should not make broad, unqualified general environmental benefit claims like ‘green’ or ‘Eco-friendly.’ Broad claims are difficult to substantiate, if not impossible.

Marketers should qualify general claims with specific environmental benefits. Qualifications for any claim should be clear, prominent, and specific.

When a marketer qualifies a general claim with a specific benefit, consumers understand the benefit to be significant. As a result, marketers shouldn’t highlight small or unimportant benefits.

Claiming “Green, made with recycled content” may be deceptive if the environmental costs of using recycled content outweigh the environmental benefits of using it, e.g., if the content needs to be shipped halfway around the world to be recycled.

Marketers should disclose whether a carbon offset purchase pays for emission reductions that won’t occur for at least two years. Marketers should not advertise a carbon offset if the law already requires the activity that is the basis of the offset.

Marketers who claim a product is compostable need competent and reliable scientific evidence that all materials in the product or package will break down into — or become part of — usable compost safely and in about the same time as the materials with which it is composted.

Marketers may make an unqualified degradable claim only if they can prove that the “entire product or package will completely break down and return to nature within a reasonably short period of time after customary disposal.” The “reasonably short period of time” for complete decomposition of solid waste products? One year

Marketers who claim that their product is non-toxic need competent and reliable scientific evidence that the product is safe for both people and the environment.

It is deceptive to misrepresent that a product is ozone-friendly or safe for the ozone layer or atmosphere.

If recycling facilities for a product are not available to at least 60 percent of consumers or communities, a marketer can state, “This product may not be recyclable in your area.” If recycling facilities for a product are available to only a few consumers, a marketer should use stronger qualifying language: “This product is recyclable only in the few communities that have appropriate recycling programs.”

Marketers should qualify claims for products or packages made partly from recycled material — for example, “Made from 30% recycled material.”

Marketers should not make an unqualified “made with renewable energy” claim unless all, or virtually all, the significant manufacturing processes involved in making the product or package are powered with renewable energy or non-renewable energy, matched by Renewable Energy Certificates.

Unqualified claims about renewable material may imply that a product is recyclable, made with recycled content, or biodegradable. One way to minimize that risk is to identify the material used clearly and prominently, and explain why it is renewable, e.g., “Our flooring is made from 100% bamboo, which grows at the same rate, or faster, than we use it.”

When it comes to “green” trademarks one way to avoid a deceptive or deceptively misdescriptive objection is to make sure that your mark is merely suggestive, e.g., EARTHWISE, ECOMAX, RECYCLAY.

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REST IN PEACE RON POPEIL

As a trademark lawyer, I help to bring my clients’ ideas for products to market. No one was better at bringing his products to a skeptical marketplace than Ron Popeil. He died last Wednesday at the age of 86 leaving the world such products as the VEG-O-MATIC (See U.S. Trademark Registration #6396328), the POCKET FISHERMAN (See U.S. Trademark Registration #3380017, MR. MICROPHONE (a wireless mike that played through the radio) (See U.S. Trademark Registration #1150877) and “GLH,” a product commonly known as “hair in a can.”

Popeil started in a rough neighborhood; Chicago’s Maxwell Street Market. At sixteen, Ron began to sell the very products his father’s factory produced in the flea markets on Maxwell street in Chicago. Storing his goods and table in the back of a grimy fish store. Ron would start his day there at 5 AM to set up and would gross as much as $500 per day; a huge success for a kid in the 1950’s.

In need of jobs and quick cash, fledgling entrepreneurs came to Maxwell Street to earn their livelihood. Many say it was the largest open-air market in the country. From clothes, to produce, to cars, appliances, tools, and virtually anything anyone might want, Maxwell Street offered discount items to consumers and was an economic hub for poor people looking to get ahead. Merchandise was often considered to have originated from hijacked or pirated railcars/railyards and transport rigs for quick resale and dissemination of articles. Few questions were asked about the origin of a vendor’s items for sale, particularly if the price was “right.”

Maxwell Street Market also represented a fundamental change in American retail and economic history. The market was a response to and rejection of stand-alone retail establishments and their price structures. This microcosm of commerce recognized the availability and influx of Asian and world imports and markets (Taiwan, Japan, China, Mexico) priced dramatically lower than American produced goods. Wholesalers lined Roosevelt Road with goods from all over the world; savvy vendors would buy from them to resell on the market at a profit, usually at a 100% markup. The resulting price(s) fell well below goods available elsewhere, due to low overhead. The market also responded to the spending power of immigrants and minorities; they could take their cash where they were welcome, accepted, and could shop.

See https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Photography_by_Victor_Albert_Grigas_(1919-2017)_PEOPLE_00003_(49323228683).jpg#/media/File:Photography_by_Victor_Albert_Grigas_(1919-2017)_PEOPLE_00003_(49323228683).jpg and https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maxwell_Street_Camp_Meeting.jpg#/media/File:Maxwell_Street_Camp_Meeting.jpg

Popeil took what he learned on the streets of Chicago and moved on to television selling such products as those identified above to people like Homer Simpson who in numerous episodes would grab his telephone and credit card and purchase a product like the following while watching a television commercial like one of these.

This last one is my favorite:

So, when a client comes into my office, in the tradition of such great American salesmen as Ron Popeil and Steven Jobs, I leave my skepticism at home. Sometimes, a new product with the right pitchman can change the world:

Without the iPhone, there would be no Uber, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, You Tube, and the list goes on. But as Ron Popeil and Steven Jobs has demonstrated, a product doesn’t sell itself. It takes a good presentation and a good presenter.

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Jeff Bezos’ Journey Into I.P. Space or Amazon’s Revised Conditions of Use

A day before Jeff Bezos rode Blue Origin’s New Shepherd spacecraft on his ten minute excursion through the atmosphere to space and back I got an email advising me of Amazon’s updated Conditions of Use. [Note these were effective last May 3rd.]

Here are some of their highlights with an emphasis towards I.P.:

COPYRIGHTS

“All content included in or made available through any Amazon Service, such as text, graphics, logos, button icons, images, audio clips, digital downloads, data compilations, and software is the property of Amazon or its content suppliers and protected by United States and international copyright laws.”

TRADEMARKS

Amazon’s trademarks and trade dress may not be used in connection with any product or service that is not Amazon’s, in any manner that is likely to cause confusion among customers, or in any manner that disparages or discredits Amazon.

Those trademarks include the following (Amazon says this is a non-exhaustive list.):

1-CLICK

1-CLICK COMPARE

1-CLICK WEBSTORE

6PM

7GOALS

10.OR

10.OR COSMOS

10.OR MOVE

10.OR RAVE

28 PALMS

43 PEOPLE

43 PLACES

43 THINGS

+44

47NORTH

47 NORTH Design

206 C Design

206 COLLECTIVE

365

! Design

.MOI Design

“a” Design

“a” MADE FOR KINDLE Design

A TO Z

A VOICE IS ALL YOU NEED

A2Z

A9

A.COM

A9.COM

A9SEARCH

A-ZSHOP

A-LISTCOLLECTION

ABE

ABEBOOKS

ACX AUDIOBOOK CREATION EXCHANGE and Design

ADD-ON ITEM Design

ADMASH

ADVANCED BOOK EXCHANGE

ADZINIA

AIR PATRIOTS

AIRPORT MANIA

AJC COLLECTION

AL DENTE

ALEJANDRA SKY

ALEXA

ALEXA FUND

ALEXA GADGETS

ALEXA ONBOARD

ALEXA PRIZE

ALL CONSUMING

ALLEGRO COFFEE

ALPHA HOUSE

ALWAYS HOME

AMAZON

AMAZON and Design

AMAZON 4-STAR and Design

AMAZON ADCON

AMAZON ADVERTISING

AMAZON AIR

AMAZON ALEXA

AMAZON ANYWHERE

AMAZON ASAP

AMAZONASSIST

AMAZON AURORA

AMAZONBASICS

AMAZON BASICS Design

AMAZON BOOKCLIPS PODCAST Design

AMAZON BUSINESS

AMAZON.CA

AMAZON.CA FIRST NOVEL AWARD WINNER Design

AMAZON CAPITAL

AMAZON CARE Design

AMAZON CART

AMAZON CHAI CART

AMAZON CHIME

AMAZON CLOUD CAM

AMAZON CLOUD DRIVE

AMAZON CLOUDFRONT

AMAZON CLOUD PLAYER

AMAZON CODEGURU

AMAZON COGNITO

AMAZON COIN Design

AMAZON COINS

AMAZON.COM

AMAZON.COM Design

AMAZON.COM.BR

AMAZON.COM.BR Design

AMAZON.COM ANYWHERE

AMAZON.COM OUTLET

AMAZONCONNECT

AMAZON CONNECT

AMAZONCROSSING

AMAZON CURRENCY CONVERTER

AMAZON DASH

AMAZON DASH Design

AMAZON DASH REPLENISHMENT

AMAZONDC

AMAZON DETECTIVE

AMAZON DEVPAY

AMAZON DYNAMODB ACCELERATOR

AMAZON EC2

AMAZON ECHO

AMAZON ECHO DOT

AMAZON ECHO PLUS

AMAZON ECHO SHOW

AMAZON ECHO SPOT

AMAZON ELEMENTS

AMAZON ENGLISH

AMAZON ENGLISH Design

AMAZONENCORE

AMAZON FASHION

AMAZON FIRE

AMAZON FIREFLY

AMAZON FLEX

AMAZON FLOW

AMAZON FREERTOS

AMAZON FREIGHT

AMAZONFRESH

AMAZONFRESH PICKUP

AMAZON FRUSTRATION-FREE

AMAZON FUSE

AMAZON GAME STUDIOS

AMAZON GAMELIFT

AMAZON GAMEON

AMAZON GEAR

AMAZON GLACIER

AMAZON GLOBAL

AMAZON GLOBAL Design

AMAZON GLOBAL LOGISTICS

AMAZON GLOBAL SELLING

AMAZON GO Design

AMAZON GO GROCERY Design

AMAZON GUARDDUTY

AMAZON HANDMADE

AMAZON HOME SERVICES

AMAZON HONOR SYSTEM

AMAZON HUB

AMAZON HUB LOCKER

AMAZON INSTANT VIDEO

AMAZON INSTANT VIDEO Design

AMAZONKINDLE

AMAZON KINESIS

AMAZON KIRANA NOW

AMAZON LAUNCHPAD

AMAZON LEX

AMAZON LIGHTSAIL

AMAZON LINKS (Guitar Design)

AMAZON LOCAL

AMAZON LOCAL REGISTER

AMAZON LOCKER

AMAZON LOGISTICS

AMAZON LUMBERYARD

AMAZON LUNA

AMAZON MACIE

AMAZON MARKETPLACE

AMAZON MECHANICAL TURK

AMAZON MOBILE MASTERS

AMAZON MOBILE SHOPPING CART Design

AMAZON MOMENTS

AMAZONMP3 Design

AMAZON MUSIC

AMAZON NEPTUNE

AMAZON ONE

AMAZON OUTLET

AMAZON PAY

AMAZON PERSONALIZATION NETWORK

AMAZON PHARMACY

AMAZON PHOTOS

AMAZON PINPOINT

AMAZON POLLY

AMAZON PRIME

AMAZON PRIME MUSIC

AMAZON PRIME VIDEO

AMAZON PRIME VIDEO & Design

AMAZON PRODUCT ADS

AMAZON PV

AMAZON QUICKSIGHT

AMAZON REDSHIFT

AMAZON REDSHIFT SPECTRUM

AMAZON REKOGNITION

AMAZON RELAY

AMAZON REMEMBERS

AMAZON RESTAURANTS

AMAZON ROBOTICS

AMAZON ROUTE 53

AMAZON SAGEMAKER

AMAZON SAGEMAKER NEO

AMAZON SCOUT

AMAZON SELLER UNIVERSITY

AMAZON SERVICES JAPAN

AMAZON SILK

AMAZONSILK

AMAZON SIMPLE PAY

AMAZON SOLAR FARM

AMAZON SOMMELIER

AMAZON SPARK

AMAZON SPARK Design

AMAZON STORYTELLER

AMAZON STORYWRITER

AMAZON STUDIOS

AMAZON SUMERIAN

AMAZONSUPPLY

AMAZON SUPPLY Design

AMAZON TAP

AMAZON TEXTRACT

AMAZONTOTE Design

AMAZONUNBOX Design

AMAZON UNDERGROUND

AMAZON VIDEO DIRECT

AMAZON VIDEO ON DEMAND Design

AMAZON VINE

AMAZON VPC

AMAZON WEB SERVICES

AMAZON WEB SERVICES Design

AMAZON WEBSTORE

AMAZON WIND FARM

AMAZONWINDOWSHOP Design

AMAZON WINE

AMAZON WIRE PODCAST Design

AMAZON WIRELESS

AMAZON@WORK

AMAZON WORKLINK

AMAZON WORKSPACES Design

AMAZON’S CHOICE

AMZN, AND YOU’RE DONE

ANNAPURNA LABS Design

ANIME STRIKE and Design

ANNEBOTS

ANNEDROIDS

APPLY & BUY

APPSTREAM

APPY FAMILY

ARABELLA

ARMCHAIR COMMENTARY

ARTHUR HARVEY

ARTIFICIAL

ASAP

ASIN

ASKVILLE

ASSOCIATES CENTRAL

ASTORE Design

AUDIBLE

AUDIBLEKIDS Design

AUDIBLELISTENER

AUDIBLEMANAGER

AUDILBLEORIGINALS

AUDIBLEREADY

AUDIOBOOKSTAND

AURIQUE

AUTORIP

AUTORIP Design

AVAILABLE AT AMAZON Design

AWS

AWS AMPLIFY

AWS CHALICE

AWS CLOUDTRAIL

AWS CODESTAR

AWS CONTROL TOWER

AWS DATASYNC

AWS DEEPLENS

AWS DEEPRACER

AWS DEEPRACER LEAGUE

AWS EDUCATE Design

AWS ELEMENTAL

AWS FARGATE

AWS GOLDBASE

AWS GRAVITON

AWS GREENGRASS

AWS INFERENTIA

AWS IS HOW

AWS NITRO ENCLAVES

AWS NITRO SYSTEM

AWS OUTPOSTS

AWS MARKETPLACE Design

AWS RE-INVENT Design

AWS ROBOMAKER

AWS SERVE

AWS Smile Design

AWS SNOWMOBILE

AWS THINKBOX

BAG O’CRAP

BECAUSE YOU READ

BEFORE YOU BUY

BETAS

BETTER WITH PRIME

BETTERIZER

BIBLIOFIND

BID-CLICK

BIOLABS

BLAZINGTEXT

BLINK

BLOCKVIEW

BLUE RING MOTION

BLUE SHADE

BOOKCASSETTE

BOOK-OLOGY

BOOKSLEUTH

BOP

BOP BASICS

BOP BIJOUX

BOSCH

BOTTLEROCKET

BOTTOM OF THE PAGE

BOUQUETS

BOX OFFICE MOJO

BRAKET

BREAKTHROUGH

BREATHE

BRIGHTVOICE

BRIGITTE BAILEY

BRILLIANCE

BRILLIANCE AUDIO

BRUSHLAND

BUG DIARIES

BUTTONED DOWN Design

BUY ONCE, READ EVERYWHERE

BUYBOX

BUYPHRASE

CABLE STITCH

CAMPERFORCE

CERTIFIED FRUSTRATION-FREE PACKAGING

CHECKOUT BY AMAZON

CHIME

CHIME MEETINGS

CHIME SPACES

CHORDSTRIKE

CLICK.HEAR

CLIMATE PLEDGE ARENA

CLIMATE PLEDGE FRIENDLY

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CLOUDENDURE

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COMICSTAAN

COMPACT BY DESIGN

CONTACT LENS

CORE 10

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CUSTOMFLIX

CVCORP

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DAY ONE

DEADLINE

DEAL OF THE DAY

DEALS ARE EVERYWHERE

DEALS.WOOT!

DEEPCOMPOSER

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DIAPERS.COM

DENALI

DON’T JUST WIN THE MATCH – WIN THE CROWD

DON’T RESTRICT ME

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DPREVIEW

DROP IN

DYNAMODB

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EARTH’S BIGGEST

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EARTH’S BIGGEST MOVIE DATABASE

EARTH’S BIGGEST SELECTION

EAST DANE

EAT THE WORLD

EAT. RACE. WIN.

EC2

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ECHO CONNECT

ECHO DOT

ECHO ESCAPE

ECHO LOOK

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ECHO PLUS

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ECHO SPOT

EERO

ELASTIC BEANSTALK

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ELASTICACHE

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EMERGENCY HOLIDAY PROVISIONS

END USER

EONO

EVERY PACK HAS A STORY

EXACON

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FABRIC.COM

FABRIC.COM Design

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FBA BOOST

FELIX FOX

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FIND.

FIRE

FIRE TV

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FIRECRACKER

FIREFLY

FITZWELL

FLEETIQ

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FLEXMATCH

FOUR MORE SHOTS PLEASE

FREE MEEK

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FRENCH DELUXE

FRESH & WILD

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FUSE

GABCAB

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GET ONLINE, NOT IN LINE

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GETPHRASE

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GIFTPHRASE

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GLANCE

Glitch Design

GLOBEX

GOLD BOX

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GOODSPORT GS Design

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GOODTHREADS GT Design

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GRAND HARBOR

GRAND HARBOR PRESS Design

GRAPH CACHE THRASH

GREEN 3

GROWNUP SCHOOL

HAND OF GOD

HAPPY BELLY

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HELPBIT

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HOMEBASE

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HUB

HUZZAH

I WANT ONE!

IBERLIBRO

IMDB

IMDB ME

IMDB SHOW

IMDBPRO

IMDBRIEF

IMPROVE YOUR HOLITUDE

INNOVATIONS IN SEARCH TECHNOLOGIES

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IRIS LILLY and Design

IVONA

J Design

JAM & HONEY

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JUST ADD MAGIC

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LAB126

LAB126 Design

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LARK & RO

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LOVE YOUR LOOK. EVERY DAY.

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MERCHANTS@AMAZON.COM.JP

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MR BEAMS

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NETBRIGHT

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OMAKASE

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ON DECK

ONE COMMUNITY, EVERY DEAL

ONE DAY, ONE DEAL

ONE DAY, YOU’LL UNDERSTAND

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PAATAL LOK

PAPERWHITE

PARIS SUNDAY

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PAY WITH AMAZON Design

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PIKE STREET

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PRIME AIR

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PV

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Q EXPRESS

QFONE

QLDB

QTAB

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QUESTVILLE

QUIDSI

QUIVELA

READERS

READYBRIGHT

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RED OAKS

[RE]DISCOVER

REDWAGON

REFLEXIVE

RE:INVENT

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RELAY

REMOTELOAD

REPLENISH

RICOCHET

RIGHT NOW CLIMATE FUND

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SAYHI

SCOUT

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SELL ON AMAZON

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SEQUOIA

SEV ZERO

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SHELFARI

SHIRT.WOOT!

SHOPBOP

SHOP WITH POINTS

SHOULD DO THIS

SIDETRAIL

SIGMUND AND THE SEA MONSTERS

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Silk Globe Design

SILVA-SE QUEM PUDER

SIMPLZ: ZOO

SING MY SONG

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SKATE CREEK

SKATE CREEK SOUNDS

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SNOWBALL

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SO YOU’D LIKE TO

SOAP.COM

SOLTOS EM FLORIPA

SOULMATE

SOUNDUNWOUND

SOUQ

SOUQ AN AMAZON COMPANY

SOUQ.COM

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SPOTTED ZEBRA

STANZA

STARMETER

START WITH A SMILE

STATE & LAKE

STICK UP CAM

STORYFRONT

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SUMERIAN

SWITCHSENSE

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TED BUNDY: FALLING FOR A KILLER

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THE NEW VIPS

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THING

THINKBOX SOFTWARE

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TOOTHSTEJNN

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ULTIMATELISTENER

UMI

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Vine Design

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WE DELIVER EVERYTHING BUT THE BABY

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WHISPERNET

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WHITE FRIDAY SALE

WHOLE FOODS MARKET

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WISHLIST Design

WITHOUTABOX

WOOT!

WOOT! Design

WOOT CELLARS

WOOT HAPPY HOUR

WOOT-OFF!

WORD RUNNER

WORKS WITH AMAZON ALEXA Design

WRAP YOUR HOLIDAYS IN A SMILE

X-RAY

YOU SIT. WE FETCH.

YOU’RE NOT A MONSTER

YOYO.COM

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Z+

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PATENTS

Here is a non-exhaustive list of Amazon’s patents:

United States Patent Numbers: 5,715,399; 5,727,163; 5,826,258; 5,960,411; 5,963,949; 5,999,924; 6,003,024; 6,006,225; 6,029,141; 6,064,980; 6,144,958; 6,169,986; 6,175,823; 6,185,558; 6,185,556; 6,199,079; 6,233,573; 6,266,649; 6,269,369; 6,317,722; 6,324,535; 6,360,254; 6,366,910; 6,401,084; 6,427,175; 6,442,543; 6,449,601; 6,460,038; 6,466,918; 6,489,968; 6,525,747; 6,539,378; 6,546,393; 6,549,904; 6,564,213; 6,571,243; 6,594,644; 6,606,619; 6,606,608; 6,615,226; 6,625,609; 6,629,079; 6,643,624; 6,675,196; 6,714,926; 6,714,916; 6,760,470; 6,772,150; 6,785,671; 6,851,089; 6,853,993; 6,853,982; 6,865,546; 6,882,981; 6,889,250; 6,907,315; 6,912,505; 6,917,922; 6,941,374; 6,952,715; 6,963,867; 6,963,848; 6,963,850; 6,973,429; 6,999,941; 7,006,989; 7,050,992; 7,058,599; 7,080,124; 7,080,070; 7,082,407; 7,107,227; 7,113,917; 7,117,167; 7,124,129; 7,130,820; 7,139,771; 7,149,353; 7,155,336; 7,174,054; 7,194,419; 7,194,437; 7,210,102; 7,216,103; 7,222,087; 7,246,308; and 7,254,552.

Portions of this Site operate under license of United States Patent Numbers:

5,708,780; 5,715,314; 5,909,492; 6,205,437; 6,195,649; 5,717,860; 5,712,979; 5,819,285; 6,782,370; 5,812,769; 5,528,490; 5,761,649; 6,029,142; and 6,330,592.

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