News - McDaniels IP Solicitors | Intellectual Property Lawyers Newcastle

Trump refuses "too small" trade mark

An individual from the US, namely Steve Elster, has tried to register a trade mark at the United States Patent & Trade Mark Office for the phrase “Trump too small”. The applied for mark is a reference to what his 2016 presidential rival, Marco Rubio said about Donald Trump during the campaign. Elster wants to […]

Nordstrom accused of selling counterfeit goods

California based outdoor fashion company, Patagonia Inc. (“Patagonia”) has issued proceedings against Seattle based luxury department store Nordstrom, Inc. (“Nordstrom”) in the US District Court for the Central District of California. Patagonia has filed the claim on the basis Nordstrom are committing both copyright and trade mark infringement over sales of “counterfeit” Patagonia products. The […]

Jail time for illegal streaming cartel

Members of an illegal streaming group, which made upwards of £7 million by offering cheap subscriptions to watch Premier League matches, have been sentenced to a total of more than 30 years in prison. The illegal services – Flawless, Shared VPS and Optimal – also offered access to hundreds of channels from around the world […]

Google to pay hefty sum over patent infringement

Google has been ordered to pay $32.5 million in damages to Sonos for infringing the company’s patent relating to smart speakers. A San Francisco federal jury decided on Friday that Google had infringed one of Sonos’ patents in its wireless audio devices. The jury ruled that Google infringed one of Sonos’ two patents raised at […]

Whisky Business

The stars of Scottish sitcom Still Game have emerged victorious in their trade mark dispute against liquor heavyweight Jack Daniel’s. Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill, who both wrote and starred in the hit series, launched their own blended Scotch whisky ‘Jack & Victor’ in 2021 in honour of their much beloved on-screen personas. The duo […]

Taco Tuesday set to be cancelled?

Fast food goliath Taco Bell has filed an appeal with the US Patent and Trademark Office to cancel the federal trade mark ‘Taco Tuesday’. The mark is owned by Wyoming-based rival taco franchise Taco John’s, who has utilised the well-known phrase since 1989. Taco’s Johns has earned a reputation through the years for its staunch […]

Megadeth settle album artwork lawsuit

Thrash metal stalwarts Megadeth have settled a legal dispute with artist Brent Elliott White in relation to the artwork used on the cover of their latest album ‘The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead!’. White, a New York-based illustrator, sued the band after they allegedly failed to pay him for his services in creating the […]

Cleaning up counterfeit goods

Over 3,000 electric toothbrush heads have been seized by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) after police raided two addresses in east London last week. If genuine, the toothbrush heads would have been worth around £45,000. One man was arrested on suspicion of distributing articles that infringe trade marks and the acquisition of criminal […]

AI in music: It’s (not) a sin?

Pet Shop Boys frontman, Neil Tennant, today proposed that artificial intelligence (AI) should be embraced by musicians as a useful part of their song writing toolkit in the future. Amid growing fears within the music industry that AI could threaten to usurp human songwriters, Tennant suggested that the technology could be used to curb writer’s […]

Victory for Sheeran, Again!

A Manhattan jury have returned a verdict in favour of British singer Ed Sheeran in a federal court in New York finding him not guilty of copyright infringement. Back in April we reported on the dispute between Ed Sheeran and the heirs of Marvin Gaye over Sheeran’s hit single “Thinking Out Loud”. Gaye’s heirs claimed […]

Not the maiden Trade Mark Application

Heavy metal giants, Iron Maiden, are seeking to block a trade mark application for the mark “Maiden Wear” at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Los Angeles business owner, Lu Min Chen, filed an application for the mark back in February 2022 and the mark was published for opposition purposes on 03 January 2023. […]

Watch This Space

A mistrial has been declared in a trial between Apple Inc. and Masimo Corp. over Apple’s purported misuse of stolen trade secrets. Masimo issued proceedings against Apple on grounds Apple misused confidential information relating to technology which enables watches to read the user’s heart rates and blood oxygen levels. Those technology features are available in […]

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