October 15, 2026 Weekly newsletter • No action required. Hello Reader, Imagine a business hires a designer for a new logo. The invoice is paid, the files arrive, and the business begins using the design. A year later, it wants another agency to adapt the artwork for packaging. What rights did the original agreement provide? Payment, file delivery, and copyright ownership are separate questions. Copyright in qualifying creative work generally starts with its author. A business may have...
11 days ago • 1 min read
October 8, 2026 Weekly newsletter • No action required. Hello Reader, Plastic bags and paper labels are easy to tell apart. Could similar names for those products still create a trademark conflict? In a recent case, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board said yes. A business sought to register MAXXOUT for general-purpose plastic bags and merchandise bags. The USPTO refused the application because of an existing MAXOUT! registration for multilayer pressure-sensitive paper labels. The Board...
18 days ago • 1 min read
October 1, 2026 Weekly newsletter • No action required. Hello Reader, Someone on a team comes up with a great brand name. Another person develops the logo. The business pays for the website and starts using the brand. Who owns the trademark? A recent decision involving the BIRTH JUSTICE logo shows why the answer takes more than identifying the person who had the idea. An attorney conceived the brand and registered its domain before joining a law firm. The completed logo was then developed and...
25 days ago • 1 min read
September 24, 2026 Hello Reader, A federal trademark registration is a valuable business asset. It creates important legal advantages and puts others on notice of your rights. But it does not put the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in charge of watching the marketplace for you. When someone files a new federal trademark application, a USPTO examining attorney searches the register and may refuse that application if it is likely to cause confusion with an earlier registration or application....
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
September 17, 2026 Hello Reader, Receiving a trademark demand letter can make it feel as though someone else has already decided the outcome. The language may be forceful, the deadline may be short, and the requested action may include immediately stopping use of your name, removing products, transferring a domain, or paying money. But a demand letter is an allegation and a request—not a court ruling. The sender may have legitimate concerns, or the situation may be more complicated than the...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
September 10, 2026 Hello Reader, A recent Axios Charlotte report offers an expensive reminder for anyone preparing to launch a business or product under a new name. According to the report, the founders of a Charlotte fitness concept called Drench learned—just days before they planned to begin selling memberships—that another business was using a similar name. They decided to rebrand as Overflo and estimated that the change would cost approximately $45,000 after accounting for merchandise,...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
September 3, 2026 Hello Reader, The filing route for many U.S. businesses seeking international trademark protection is changing. Beginning October 1, 2026, WIPO’s Madrid e-Filing system will become the single place to file a new international trademark application based on a U.S. application or registration. During the transition period from July 31 through September 30, applicants can use either Madrid e-Filing or the existing TEASi system. After September 30, new outbound Madrid...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
August 27, 2026 Hello Reader, Businesses change legal structure more often than their trademark records do. A founder files a trademark personally. Later, the founder forms an LLC. A corporation changes its name. Two companies merge. A business sells a product line. A holding company is created. The brand continues operating without interruption. But the USPTO record may still list the old owner. That mismatch can stay hidden for years. It often appears at the worst possible time: During a...
2 months ago • 2 min read
August 20, 2026 Hello Reader, Business owners often ask one trademark question as if it were two: Can I register this name? They usually mean: Can I use this name without creating a serious conflict? Those questions are related. But they are not the same. Registrability asks whether the USPTO is likely to approve the mark for federal registration. Freedom to use asks whether adopting and using the mark is likely to interfere with someone else’s rights. A name can be difficult to register...
2 months ago • 2 min read