Archive for February, 2007
| Newer Entries »Creating an Effective Brand
Friday, February 16th, 2007
Vitamin.com posted an interesting article by Mike McDerment of freshbooks.com on how to create an effective brand.
One thing the article didn’t deal with, however, was the role of trademark due diligence in the brand creation process. Before committing to any new brand, appropriate clearance searches should be conducted. The best new brand in the world may not be of much use if it’s infringing on the rights of a competitor – at the very least, the cost of launching the brand could go up significantly – Apple’s launch of its iPhone brand is a classic example. Apple is fortunate enough to have the legal budget to fight those battles. Many businesses don’t.
Posted in Branding | Comments Off
Samsung folds? – Deal reached with Research in Motion over BlackJack
Monday, February 12th, 2007
In an update to an earlier post regarding the suit by Research in Motion Ltd. against Samsung Electronics Co. with respect to Samsung’s mark BlackJack, the parties have apparently reached a deal. The settlement terms are confidential but news reports indicate that part of the settlement includes the withdrawal of Samsung’s trademark application for BlackJack and limitations regarding continued use of the BlackJack mark by Samsung. This settlement, together with RIM’s victory in a British patent dispute earlier this week, should mean that nothing’s looking black for RIM these days.
Posted in Branding, Famous Marks, Protection & Enforcement | 1 Comment »
CBC shoots and scores in domain name dispute
Monday, February 5th, 2007
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) was recently successful in its domain name dispute against Ghalib Dhalla over the domain name hockeynightincanada.ca.
Saturday night hockey games televised by the CBC as “Hockey Night in Canada” have been a Canadian institution since 1952 - the theme song is probably as well known to most Canadians as our national anthem.
According to the recent decision under the CIRA Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (CDRP), Ghalib Dhalla registered the domain name on November 8, 2000. He had apparently contacted CBC representatives about possibly transferring the domain name and indicated that he had considered using the site for hockey pools. He also asked for consideration to transfer the domain name that clearly was related to the anticipated legal costs that would be incurred by CBC if it attempted a CDRP proceeding. At some point, the registrant began operating the site as a pay-per-click site. The CBC ended negotiations, sent a cease and desist letter to the registrant and commenced proceedings under the CDRP. Mr. Dhalla did not file a response to the CBC’s Complaint.
Under the criteria required to succeed in a CDRP dispute, the CBC was successful in proving, on a balance of probabilities, that the domain name was confusingly similar to a mark in which the CBC had rights, which rights predated the domain name registration, that the registrant had registered the domain name in bad faith and that the registrant didn’t have a legitimate interest in the domain name.
Posted in Domain Name Disputes | 3 Comments »