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Trademark Prosecution

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Trademarks can make or break a company.  Strong trademarks communicate your brand identity to consumers and translate into heightened sales. Weak trademarks often result in companies becoming lost in the shuffle.  At Irwin IP, we understand both the correlation between trademark strength and brand identity, and how to navigate the often-confusing waters of trademark law to get you, your business, and your brand identity where you need them to be.

A trademark is any device that helps consumers identify the source of goods or services, namely, what company makes the widget you just bought.  A trademark can be words, logos, sounds, catch phrases, colors, product shapes, and even smells.  We not only help select and craft the strongest brands possible, but we also help clients maintain and grow those rights for as long as possible.  We are with you through the entire process from selection to enforcement and everything in between, depending on your company’s needs, offering the most cost-effective ways to protect your brand both at home and abroad.

Irwin IP offers a comprehensive range of trademark services including:

  • Trademark, service mark, and trade dress selection counseling
  • Trademark clearance 
  • Prosecution of U.S. trademark and service mark applications
  • Client counseling to ensure proper trademark use
  • Managing and protecting clients’ trademark portfolios 
  • Protection of intellectual property confidentiality during collaborative efforts
  • Policing trademark misuse by third parties
  • Sending cease-and-desist letters to infringers
  • Managing international litigation
  • United States Patent and Trademark Office proceedings

Whether you’re just getting started, or at the center of a multi-national brand powerhouse, we have you and your trademarks covered.

  • Lightspeed Systems: Successfully overcame an office action and obtained registration of LIGHTSPEED SYSTEMS word mark and design mark in connection with network content filtering, screening, and security management. Also maintained registration of UK trademark for LIGHTSPEED SYSTEMS.
  • R. Fuller: Successfully overcame a likelihood of confusion office action for STITCHIES in connection with stuffed animals
  • BioBox Labs: Successfully overcame an office action and obtained registration of BIOBOX LABS and a design mark in connection with science activity kits
  • Label Daddy: Maintained LABEL DADDY word mark and design mark in connection with stickers and labels
  • LKQ: Sent cease and desist letters to infringers and submitted UDRP complaints against infringing domain names
  • Diggers Pools: Successfully overcame an office action for LINERWORLD .COM in connection with pool liners, vinyl patch kits, and other accessories
  • Emma Alamo: Successfully obtained a registration on EMMA ALAMO and a design mark in connection with clothing goods
  • Massarelli’s Lawn Ornaments: Maintained registration of MLO trademarks in connection with statuary objects
  • P. Mata: Maintained registration of KOMMUNITY FK in connection with musical recordings and sent cease and desist letters to infringers using that mark
  • Finance Information Group, LLC: Maintained registration of TRANSACTION ADVISORS in connection with magazines
  • The Triangle X Ranch Partnership: Maintained registration of TRIANGLE X RANCH, X2, and a design mark in connection with ranch services
 In an opinion made precedential at the PTAB’s request, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) affirmed a PTAB determination that a trademark application for the wordmark “EVERYBODY VS. RACISM” committed a “cardinal sin” under the Lanham Act by undermining the source-identifying function of a trademark.  The…
This week, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the United States Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s (“TTAB”) and subsequent Eastern District of Virginia’s (“District Court”) summary judgment finding that “GRUYERE” could not be registered as a certification mark because the term had become generic.  Specifically, “GRUYERE” is generic because the “relevant…
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) issued the first precedential opinion of 2022 refusing registration of POTIFY and POTIFY (design) based on dilution by blurring of the mark SPOTIFY.  The TTAB did not reach the alternate grounds of likelihood of confusion or dilution by tarnishment. Applicant sought registration…