By Katy GasparPearl Jam tribute band, Pearl Jamm, recently received a cease-and-desist letter requesting a change of name and logo, the turning over of domain names, and the destruction of all unsold merchandise. Is this within their rights? To begin, what is a trademark? Generally, a trademark is a design, word, phrase or symbol that [...]
Your online reputation is your first introduction to many of your potential customers. You don’t want to start out on the wrong foot or give potential customers the idea that your company is something that’s not. You must create a clear representation of how you want your business to be portrayed. The key is [...]
Many of you may remember reading a “Choose your own Adventure” book in your childhood, and being fascinated by the different trajectory a story could take as you made different selections in the story line. R.A. Montgomery created the children’s book series entitled “Choose Your Own Adventure” in the late 1970’s. The original Bantam [...]
By Drew Harris How delicious are those 11 “secret herbs and spices” assembled by Harland Sanders in 1930 for his popular “Kentucky Fried Chicken” sold at his local service station? It was so “finger lickin’ good” popular that the Governor Ruby Laffoon proclaimed him a “Colonel” and he started franchising his chicken business. But rather [...]
OR, What's in a Name? Personal Names as Trade Names REMIXED. By Barry Neil Shrum, Esquire (with Ashley Trout) "That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." You may know this quote from William Shakespeare’s classic play Romeo and Juliet or from the more "pop-culture" reference by Anne Hathaway [...]
Editors Note: The following is a research paper from one of the students in my Entertainment Law & Licensing class I teach at Belmont University’s Curb School of Music. By G. GRANT GUINANE On July 30, 1998 Tivo Inc. registered a patent for their multimedia time warping system that allows a user to store selected [...]
One question clients often asked me is whether an idea can be protected. The question frequently arises when a client has an idea for a screenplay, or an outline for a story, or a unique title for a song or book, and wishes to submit or “pitching” that idea to a major movie house, publisher [...]
By James H. Harris III* More than just occasionally, entertainers adopt stage names. They do so because they believe the new name will add a luster and specific identity to their careers. Thus, Harold S. Jenkins became Conway Twitty. A stage name, of course, is a type of mark that an entertainer uses to identify [...]
