Celebrating 20 Years of IP Excellence

The featured image is of the trademark symbols- tm, r . The post is abouT change in the name of Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) to European Union Intellectual Property Office. please click here to read more.

The First Amendment strikes again

  The Slants, an Asian-American rock band, founded by Simon Tam, had applied for  the registration of their band name as a trademark. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) however, refused to grant THE SLANTS trademark registration under §2(a), which bars registration for marks “[c]onsist[ing] of or compris[ing] … matter which may disparage … persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or bring them into contempt, or disrepute.” It stated that the mark was denied registration for being…

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