Branding, Intellectual Property & Trademark Law Blog

A few weeks ago, I attended the Social Media for Sustainability conference hosted by Justmeans. I met Joey and Stacie Shepp there and Joey told me about their project, Open Brands.

This posting is about the recently filed trademark case Weight Watchers International Inc. v. Nestle U.S.A. Inc., 09-07964, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

On Thursday, June 4, 2009 the USPTO reduced its goal for “trademark pendency” to two months. “TM Pendency” determines how large of an inventory of unprocessed applications the USPTO should keep at any given time. The time frame discussed in relation to pendency is the time that it takes the PTO to issue a First Office Action (“OA”) from the application filing date.

Yesterday morning, I really enjoyed hearing Ray Anderson, who taught us how mimicking nature creates sustainable business. Next was Rob Katz, CEO Vail Resorts (owner of Heavenly on the south shore of Tahoe, among many others) discussed several of the cost saving, environmentally beneficial programs that his company’s resorts implemented. The morning ended with Spencer Sherman, CEO of Abacus Wealth Management. Spencer ran us through one of Byron Katie’s exercises designed to help us overcome our main fears about our businesses or our financials lives. Spencer’s believes that 2009 is the time of reinvigoration, which sounds exciting to me.

Last Thursday I had the honor of being nominated by Russ Gaskin for the American Bar Association’s Award for Excellence in Environmental, Energy and Resources Stewardship.

A client of mine that owns reusablebags.com recently was contacted by the Mayor of Seattle, Greg Nickels, who requested my client’s support with Seattle’s proposed Plastic Bag Fee. Residents of the city of Seattle vote on August 18 whether to implement a twenty cent tax on plastic bags distributed by merchants such as grocers and convenience stores. Many of the grocers and big drugstores already participate in a voluntary education program encouraging consumers to use reusable bags.

I am in Denver, Colorado for the 7th Annual (yet my first) BALLE Conference. BALLE is the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. BALLE’s Mission is to build Local Living Economies in North America that foster vibrant communities, a healthy natural environment, and prosperity for all. This is done through:

Who would have thought that two museums would be battling out for the right to use THE COLD WAR MUSEUM? Although the Cold War ended in 1991, two museums currently are warring over who gets to use the term COLD WAR MUSEUM as their service mark.