Fragrances as Trademark Subject Matter

Distinctive fragrances are eligible for federal trademark registration. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, in a landmark decision, reversed the Examining Attorney and held that there was no reason why a fragrance was not capable of identifying and distinguishing certain types of products. Thus, the Board allowed registration of an arbitrary, nonfunctional scent for sewing thread and embroidery yarn.

Patents

A patent allows an inventor to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the patented invention without the inventor's permission for a limited period of time. Patent rights are granted by federal law, which also provides that an inventor whose patent is infringed may seek a remedy in court as one might for other wrongs. There are several defenses to patent infringement that may be asserted by one who is sued for patent infringement. One defense that not only will negate infringement liability but will also destroy the validity of a patent is inequitable conduct on the part of the inventor in procuring the patent.

Patent Law

It has been held by the United States Supreme Court that laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas may not be the subject of a patent. The reasoning behind this rule is that laws of nature and abstract ideas are not created; rather, they exist independent of any person and are merely described by the person that discovers them. Included in the types of abstract ideas for which patents may not be obtained are mathematical formulae and algorithms, which are sets of steps or procedures designed to solve a problem.

Nicknames as Trademark Subject Matter

A trademark is occasionally varied by the public in both speech and written usage to an abbreviation of or a nickname for a company's name or trademark. A company can claim trademark ownership of such a name even if the company neither created it nor publicized it. This protection coincides with the rationale behind trademark law, which is protecting against consumer confusion. Sometimes the public modifies recognized names and marks either by shortening a longer mark for purposes of convenience, such as the use of "Coke" for a Coca-Cola beverage or by adopting a nickname because of the appearance of a product and/or a desire to colloquialize a trademark, such as "Bug" for the Volkswagen Beetle automobile. A company can secure trademark protection for an abbreviation, acronym, or nickname conferred by the public if it can show that the purchasing public associates that nickname with the company or identifies the company as the source of products bearing that nickname. The company may prevent another entity from using a mark that is confusingly similar to the new term even though the company itself has not made public use of it.

The Digital Perfomance Right in Sound Recordings Act of 1995

The Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act of 1995 (DPRA) created a new limited performance right for certain digital transmissions of sound recordings.