General

Listen up all you social entrepreneurs, Out to save the world with your hearts so pure, I’m an attorney who’s doing that too, And I’m here to share my journey with you.

The Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") was created in 1914 to regulate unfair trade practices.  It issued its first set of Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims (commonly known…

Pipe dreams of trademark protection for marijuana go up in smoke . . .

We all can agree that Barbie is a famous brand, regardless of what we may think of her or the thin values she espouses. Barbie dolls have been around since May 9, 1958. The first Barbie trademark registration (Reg. No. 0,689,055) for a “doll” was issued on December 1, 1959.

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.