Under the Lanham Act—the primary federal trademark statute in the U.S.—a successful trademark infringement plaintiff is entitled to monetary damages if the plaintiff can show that the infringement caused actual customer confusion or that the infringer was unjustly enriched by the infringing conduct.  This blog post provides an overview of the types of damages available.

On January 1, 2024, the Corporate Transparency Act went into effect.  This law is intended to assist law enforcement in combating financial crimes that can be done through shell companies and businesses that are merely a front for the operator’s illegal activities.  Because failure to comply with the CTA can result in serious civil and criminal penalties, businesses should familiarize themselves with the new law.

The importance of gender inclusivity in the legal world extends to litigation, where small efforts toward inclusivity can make a big difference.  Here are three ways to be gender inclusive in litigation.

In addition to registering trademarks for words that identify the source of a product—think of the trademark “Nike” for shoes—it’s also possible to trademark a slogan or phrase that customers associate with your brand.  For example, slogans like “Just Do It” (Nike), “I’m Lovin’ It” (McDonald’s), and “Because You’re Worth It” (L’Oreal) have all been trademarked.  If you want to trademark a slogan, however, there are a few unique challenges to keep in mind.

It often makes sense to try to name your company or product after the location it comes from, especially if that place has some cache or other qualities you want customers to associate with the brand. However, it may surprise you to learn that your trademark application is likely to be refused if your mark contains a well-known geographic location. That’s because the United Stated Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will reject marks that are known as “primarily geographic descriptive.”

American society has come a long way in recent years toward recognizing and affirming that one’s assigned sex at birth doesn’t always correlate with the person’s gender identity.  Commercial and other contracts, however, are one area of life that hasn’t yet fully caught up.  Believe it or not, gender can permeate all types of contracts—everything from IP agreements and NDAs to stock purchase agreements and employment contracts.  

Memes have become an integral part of our digital culture, providing laughter, commentary, and social engagement across the internet. However, the world of memes also exists in a legal gray area when it comes to copyright law. While memes may seem harmless and humorous, they can potentially infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others. Read on for a short exploration of how memes can violate copyright law and who should worry about enforcement.

We pride ourselves on hiring lawyers with varied and rich life experiences (and leveraging that experience in our practice).  Prior to working at ZVMLaw, our attorneys not only worked in a variety of legal settings—from big and small firms to in-house roles at public companies and family-owned businesses—but also held numerous non-legal roles, including working in law school administration, violin making, teaching, farming, and founding a startup company.  While many excellent firm lawyers followed a more traditional path—from college to law school to practice—here are four benefits we’ve found to working with lawyers with varied life experiences. 

The rise of generative AI engines such as ChatGPT and Bard has already had a considerable impact on the way that many people and businesses generate work product, reports, e-mails, social media posts, and a wide range of other content. These tools have the potential to enhance efficiency and productivity, but also carry significant risk for businesses that must be considered and mitigated by implementing a policy governing use of generative AI tools in the workplace.

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act—or COPPA — is arguably one of the most expansive and harshest data protection laws, and failure to comply with it can cause numerous problems for online businesses. Here is an introduction to what your business needs to know to comply with COPPA.

Foreign words can be registered as trademarks in the United States. However, those who are considering using a foreign word trademark should be aware of the doctrine of foreign equivalents when choosing their mark.  Here is what you need to know about the doctrine.

The rise of generative AI tools in the past year has resulted in important questions involving copyright law that have not yet been addressed by courts, although there are several cases of first impression on these issues currently pending before various courts, including lawsuits pending against Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt. Here is an overview of the issues in this unsettled area of law.

Influencers and content creators have created billions of dollar in value for businesses. As influencers and content creators grow their followings and provide services for businesses, it’s important for them to have the necessary legal tools and knowledge to lawfully monetize their endeavors. If you are—or are thinking of becoming—a creator or influencer, our free guide can help you do so in a legally compliant and ethical manner.

Brands and logos evolve over time. However, trademark registrations are based on a defined mark, for defined goods and services, and protection of that mark relates back to its date of first use in commerce. If a business completely changes its brand or logo, it must register the new trademark, and the protection begins to run from the date of first use of the new mark in commerce. And if a business stops using its old mark, its rights in that mark will eventually be abandoned. But what happens if a name or logo is only slightly changed or updated? That is where the doctrine of tacking comes in.

Parties to litigation make strategic decisions all the time about what claims (or counterclaims) to bring and how to bring them. And courts for their part often seem willing to allow parties to amend their pleadings for a wide range of reasons. But what happens if a party makes the strategic decision to hold off on adding certain claims or parties to a pleading in the hopes that adding them later—or threatening to add them later—might benefit settlement discussions?

No matter what sector you operate in, your business’s internet presence is likely a key component of your branding and/or marketing strategy. For that reason, it’s crucial to protect your company’s website(s) and web presence. One threat to protect against is known as cybersquatting. Here are three ways to protect your business from cybersquatting.

When we think of trademark law, we usually think of trademarks as applying only to identify brands. However, trademark law covers more than just brand identification, including certification marks that don’t have anything to do with identifying a particular brand but instead show—or “certify”—that certain standards or qualifications have been met.

Cybersquatting—also known as cyberpiracy—is the bad faith registration of a trademarked internet domain name with the intent to profit from the mark’s goodwill. However, not every lawsuit asserting what might appear to be a plausible cybersquatting claim has merit. If your company gets hit with an ACPA cybersquatting lawsuit, here are three defenses that may be applicable.

The perils of BIPA continue to increase with the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision in Cothron v. White Castle System, Inc., which held that a claim under BIPA accrues each time biometric information is collected and disclosed rather than accruing on the first collection or disclosure of such information.

The USPTO’s list of stands characters contains every letter from the Latin Alphabet (also called the Roman alphabet) as well as Arabic numerals.  These letters and numbers are used in most of the world’s languages, from every country in the Americas and Europe to most countries in Africa and even some in Asia. But what if the word you want to trademark contains characters from a foreign language that doesn’t use the Latin alphabet?  For example, what if you want to trademark a word in written Chinese or Arabic?