Archive for the ‘Trademarks’ Category

It is not the same…but it is

Thursday, January 5th, 2017

In a global marketplace, branding in a foreign language can lead to some curious situations. The current example is the TTAB decision cancelling the registration for the “Portón” line of brandy launched in 2011 in the US by a Peruvian firm Pisco (Portón in Spanish is a large entry door, typically for a grand ranch or residence).
The company objecting to this mark is the famous “Patrón” brand of tequila from México (Patrón in Spanish is the boss, or an employer, in an organization). While the two terms mean very different things to Spanish speakers – and one is a thing and the other a person – the TTAB was persuaded to agree with the tequila brand’s position that, for most non-spanish speakers in the US market, both terms can be likely to be confused as they do not appear to sufficiently distinguish the marks, particularly in a noisy bar setting.

Confusing Terms to non-Spanish speakers

PATRON vis-a-vis PORTON

The case seems clear enough, although confusing to us Spanish speakers as the terms do not have the same meaning…but as far as branding in the US is concerned, they do!

Hat tip: @BDonahueLaw360

Case: Pisco Porton LLC v Patron SPirits Int’l. AG (USPTO TTAB 92059527)

Article of the Month – Georgia-Pacific Royalties in Trademark Cases – les Nouvelles

Friday, January 9th, 2015

The highly regarded les Nouvelles journal has designated the most recent article by David Drews, IPmetrics’ founder and president, as the article of the month for January 2015.

The article, Determining An Appropriate Royalty Rate For Reasonable Royalty Trademark Damages A Modified Georgia-Pacific Framework, discusses the concepts and nuances of the application of the well-established analytical framework for determining reasonable royalties in the context of patent infringement to the determination of similarly reasonable royalties to compensate trademarks owners in infringement cases.  Since its publication in the print edition of the journal, the article has been the subject of keen interest on the part of practitioners and litigators in trademark law.

les Nouvelles, the journal of the Licensing Executives Society International (LESI), is published quarterly and is designed to further the knowledge of the societies members and others in improving their skills, techniques and knowledge in licensing and protecting Intellectual Property (more information here).