Attorney Chelsie Spencer was featured in Forbes this morning for her work as a hemp lawyer in the hemp, medical marijuana, and cannabidiol industries. To read the feature article, please click here to be taken to the Forbes website: Meet the Fearless Lawyer Saving the CBD Industry.
Trademark Lawyer Chelsie Spencer was published in the State Bar of Texas Intellectual Property Section’s TipSheet Vol. 13 No. 2, discussing the USPTO’s treatment of trademark applications for goods containing cannabidiol. To view the article, continue reading below or click here.
Ritter Spencer Cheng attorney Chelsie Spencer is featured this morning on Fit Small Business. In the article, Top 28 Digital Branding Strategies, Mrs. Spencer advises content creators to ensure that the digital content they place online is legally protected.
Distinguishing your brand in the digital age can be a challenge, particularly due to the easy and instant access of information online and heightened market congestion. Digital theft of intellectual property is quite prevalent in the online age; however, content creators and brand owners can take steps to legally protect their works.
Recently, the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) issued an internal directive which will likely assist pending and future CBD trademark registrations with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. What is CBD you ask? CBD is an acronym for cannabidiol, a cannabis compound derived from the marijuana plant. Importantly, CBD is a non-psychoactive compound, meaning that it lacks THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) – the cannabinoid compound associated with marijuana use. CBD has been added to a variety of goods, from oils, to vapor, to honey, to candies, and beyond.
When you file an application for federal trademark registration, the TEAS filing portal (Trademark Electronic Application System) will ask you to select a filing basis for your trademark application. There are two available bases for selection: 1(a) or 1(b). Both are derived from the Lanham Act, the statute governing trademarks. When you prepare to file your online trademark application, it can often be confusing as to which basis you should file with.
When registering a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), any of the available application forms for filing will require that you specify whether you are applying for the mark in a standard character format, also referred to as a word mark, or in a special form, referred to as a stylized mark or design mark. Assuming that your business name is eligible for trademark registration, you may wonder whether you should trademark the business name or the business’s logo first. You have the option to register (a) the business name only (b) the logo or other design only or (c) both.
It’s time for Ritter Spencer Cheng’s first annual holiday trademark round up. During the holidays, you will see several commercials and other advertisement for holiday specific products. Many of the brands behind these advertisements protect their goods and services through federal trademark registration. Even the studios behind some of the famous and classic Christmas movies that you watch have trademarked the goods and services related to their movies and characters. By owning a trademark, trademark owners can exclude others from using a confusingly similar name that may lead to consumer confusion.
The legal and marketing departments behind the Velcro® trademark are attempting to avoid genericide of the mark through consumer education and brand awareness. This week, Velcro Companies released a catchy tune lauding the company’s trademarked brand name and urging consumers to only use VELCRO to refer to actual Velcro products.
Continuing with our blog series covering federal trademarks, today we will be discussing trade dress. Trade dress is commonly defined as the total image or overall appearance of a product. Protectable trade dress may include design features such as color or color combinations, graphics, size, shape, and texture, among others. It is the combination of the unique design features which constitute trade dress and make it a protectable trademark.
Recently, the Dallas Court of Appeals weighed in on a difficult intellectual property issue regarding state law claims: where to sue a person or business that is wrongfully using your intangible property (e.g. trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights, and patents). In legal terms, we call this jurisdiction. A court must have jurisdiction over the claim to adjudicate the case. Normally, jurisdiction is provided by federal statue for copyright claims, trademark claims, and certain trade secret claims. However, the federal statutes require the copyright and trademarks at issue to have been federally registered. Often, if a federal claim is not possible, your lawyer may decide to file in state court.
At Ritter Spencer Cheng PLLC, the client comes first. We understand that your business and your intellectual property are your most valuable assets. Our firm practices business law, trademarks, copyright, business disputes, business bankruptcy and collections, commercial litigation, hemp and cannabis.
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Addison, TX 75001