Birthday Blog

Today is my birthday.

I share my birthday with at least two other trademark attorneys: it’s also the birthday of my friend & mentor, Lynn Perry, and my former co-worker & current opponent in the V&T case, Matt Francis.  Were any of us just slightly more famous, our birthdays would be printed on the Miami Herald’s website.  I guess we three need to work harder on our branding.  I wonder how many celebrity attorney birthdays get mentioned by the Miami Herald each year . . . a goal for the future, perhaps?

So what am I going to do to celebrate my birthday?  Why I am going to play in the snow, of course.  But first, I am going to play on TESS.

I find the PTO’s TESS database to be a fun & valuable tool.  Especially at 6:00 in the morning.  Case in point, I just searched “March 23” in the PTO database.  Two  registrations come up, one DEAD (KOOLABREW)  and one LIVE (SWIMBABES).  KOOLABREW was registered for “insulating sleeves for beverage containers.”  SWIMBABES is registered for “infant swimming lessons.”   So why did these marks come up in a search for March 23, you wonder?  It’s because they are owned by a “Trust Dated March 23, 2009.”  The KOOLABREW ID makes me wonder if Coozie or Koozie is a registered mark.  So, moving on to COOZIE — that mark is registered but only fairly recently (2009) for footwear.  KOOZIE however is registered for “insulated containers for beverage cans.”

We know KOOZIE can’t be used in anyone’s ID since it’s a registered mark.  Oh boy, is it embarrssing when you accidentally include a mark in your client’s application ID mistaking it for the generic term for something, which happened to me with PING PONG a few years ago.  But I digress.   Back to the coozie at hand, let’s see if anyone’s gotten away with using that slight variation in spelling in their registration ID.  Why yes, they have!  BEACH PARTY IN A BAG has this ID, “a general purpose plastic bag with the words “Beach Party In A Bag” imprinted on it and containing beach party related items, namely a book, a logoed hat, and a drink holder or coozie, all sold as a unit.”  The Examiner on that one must not have been asleep.  Speaking of sleeping, “a book, a hat and a drink holder” don’t sound like much of a beach party to me, unless it’s a really good book.

Going back to birthdays, maybe I should be a little less self-centered and search birthdays in general, not just my birthday.  A general PTO search for birthday revealed 2191 records.  When I limit these to LIVE records, only 979 appear.  When I search birthday in the Goods/Services ID ([gs]), 1687 records appear, only 805 of which remain LIVE.  When I limit the search to the Combined Index ([comb]), only 551 records appear, of which only 181 are LIVE.  Of the 181 live marks, here is my favorite:

[pdf http://brandgeek.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/BD-Control-Pills.pdf]

Thanks so much for reading my blog.  I’m grateful for the opportunity to share my knowledge and humor and hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Enjoy my birthday everyone.  Thank you.  I will.