When I was a kid, I loved playing with Legos. I had some castle sets and some space sets, but my favorites were the Legoland town sets. It’s too bad Lego didn’t partner up with Star Wars until 1999, to coincide with the release of ‘The Phantom Menace.’ Since then, Lego has worked with several […]
A unique business name, product name, or logo can give you a real advantage over the competition in the marketplace. With continued promotion, consumers will see the name or logo and immediately understand that the related goods or services come from a trusted source – YOU! It is extremely important to safeguard that advantage by […]
Like most Wisconsinites, I’m excited about the Brewers’ lead in the NL Central and hope they can make another long playoff run. I’m also pumped for Badger football to return and to see if they finish first in the Big Ten West Division, as predicted. At the same time, I can’t wait for the Packers’ […]
Intellectual Property rights (including trademarks, copyrights, patents, trade secrets, and other proprietary or confidential information) are some of the most valuable and hard-earned assets that a company or entrepreneur has. Protecting those rights is of the utmost importance and can be more complicated than you might expect, as the varying categories of Intellectual Property also […]
One of my favorite episodes of ‘The Simpsons’ was on the other night. It featured Lisa and her class having a diorama contest. Ralph Wiggum’s entry consisted of a cardboard box filled with mint-in-package Star Wars action figures from the 1970s. A fellow Star Wars nerd, Principal Skinner exclaimed, “Why it’s Luke and Obi-Wan, and […]
Many companies work very hard to develop a unique “brand” for their businesses through the prominent and consistent use of a business name, brand name, slogan, or logo that is easily identifiable as belonging to the company. These words, phrases, or symbols are called trademarks, and they are very important because this is how consumers […]
A few weeks ago, I watched the movie ‘Enola Holmes,’ which is a mystery film based on the first in a series of books of the same name by Nancy Springer. The story stars Millie Bobby Brown as Enola, the teenage sister of the already-famous Sherlock Holmes, played by Henry Cavill. With the sleuthing skills […]
I am truly blessed to have the best sister ever. Ever since we were little, we’ve been very close. She graciously would agree to play with my Star Wars action figures with me. But in exchange, I would have to play Barbies with her. I wasn’t a huge fan of her Ken dolls, so I’d […]
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Ander Christensen pleading with the Lincoln, Nebraska, City Council to pass an ordinance prohibiting boneless chicken wings from being referred to as boneless chicken wings. In his impassioned speech, he explained that the food in question contained no wings, so they should be referred to as nuggets […]
Previously, after going through the long – and many times complicated – process of registering your business’s trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), changing the description of the goods or services that are covered by your federal trademark registration is usually completely prohibited. The only option a business had when it […]