Understanding Trademark Laws
Summary
The conversation covers a range of legal topics, primarily focusing on trademark laws. It explains the types of trademarks, the Lanham Act, and the concept of descriptiveness. It also touches on copyright laws, including the duration of copyright protection and what can be copyrighted. The conversation also discusses antitrust laws, including the Sherman Antitrust Act and the legality of attempts to monopolize. Additionally, it covers personal disputes, including potential causes of action for wearing someone elses clothes, playing someone elses guitar, and cutting someones hair without permission. The laws discussed are applicable to the users location, Illinois.Full Conversation
The Lanham Act provides for:
a. the process for applying for patents
b. the copyright of books
c. the creation of all intellectual property
d. the use by government of all patents
e. none of the above
The Lanham Act provides for the registration and protection of trademarks used in commerce. So, the answer is e. none of the above.
“Apple” (computers) and “Exxon” (gasoline) are examples of what kind of
trademark?
a. suggestive
b. awkward and freeky
c. generic
d. descriptive
e. None of the above
The correct answer is e. None of the above. "Apple" and "Exxon" are examples of arbitrary trademarks. They use common words or terms in an unexpected or unusual manner.
Which of the following is an example of a suggestive trademark?
a. Nike
b. Coca-Cola
c. Aspirin
d. Chicken of the Sea
e. None of the above
The correct answer is d. Chicken of the Sea. Suggestive trademarks indirectly refer to the product's characteristics, requiring some imagination to connect it to the product.
An example of a generic trademark is:
a. Muaahhhhhh
b. Dairy Queen
c. Pacific Life Insurance
d. Coca-Cola
e. none of the other choices
The correct answer is c. Pacific Life Insurance. Generic trademarks are common words or terms used to identify products or services of a specific kind.
Nike does not sell televisions, but suppose some company began to market televisions
called Nike. That would be a violation of federal law concerning:
a. cybersquatting
b. slander of title
c. conversion
d. trespass
e. none of the above
The correct answer is e. none of the above. This would be a violation of trademark infringement under the Lanham Act.
. If the relevant consuming public has been exposed to use of descriptive mark enough
to recognize the mark is not just descriptive, but it also identifies the source of
product or service, the mark:
a. has become generic
b. has achieved secondary meaning
c. will be protected by fair use
d. all of the above
e. none of the above
The correct answer is b. has achieved secondary meaning. When a descriptive mark acquires distinctiveness, it's said to have achieved a "secondary meaning".
Which of the following statements are not true for purposes of evaluating
descriptiveness:
a. Misspellings are disregarded
b. Foreign words are not translated into English
c. Abbreviations are treated as though they are abbreviated word
d. All of the above are not true
e. All of the above are true\
What is your location? The rules for evaluating descriptiveness can vary by jurisdiction.
united states
What specific legal issue or question do you need assistance with today?
Which of the following statements are not true for purposes of evaluating
descriptiveness:
a. Misspellings are disregarded
b. Foreign words are not translated into English
c. Abbreviations are treated as though they are abbreviated word
d. All of the above are not true
e. All of the above are true
The correct answer is d. All of the above are not true. For evaluating descriptiveness, misspellings are considered, foreign words are translated, and abbreviations are treated as full words.
In Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service Co., involving the copying of whitepage telephone listings, the Supreme Court held that:
a. the copying violated the valid copyright of the telephone company
b. the copying violated the valid copyright of the telephone company only if
there was commercial gain by the copier
c. copyright owners have moral rights in their copyrighted material that cannot
be changed without permission
d. public facts not presented in an original manner cannot be copyrighted, so no
violation
e. none of the above
The correct answer is d. In Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service Co., the Supreme Court held that public facts not presented in an original manner cannot be copyrighted, so no violation.
Under the current law, the duration of the copyright protection is:
a. life of the author plus 17 years
b. life of the author plus 70 years (if the work is for hire)
c. Life of the author plus 50 years
d. Only b and c
e. None of the above
The correct answer is b. Under current U.S. law, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. If the work is for hire, the duration is 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter.
. A grant from the government conveying to and securing for an inventor the exclusive
right to make, use, and sell an invention is a:
a. copyright
b. goodwill
c. trademark
d. trade secret
e. all of the above
The correct answer is e. all of the above. This is a description of a patent, which grants an inventor exclusive rights to their invention.
Which of the following statements are true:
a. only ideas can be copyrighted, not expressions of ideas
b. duration of the copyright was always measured by the life of the copyright
holder and, therefore, the duration of the copyright was never fixed
c. the copyright owner does now have the right to sue for copyright infringement
when the copyright expires
d. all of the above choices are true
e. only a and b are true
The correct answer is e. Only a and b are true. Copyright protects expressions of ideas, not the ideas themselves. The duration of copyright has varied over time.
*. Under the laws of trademark dilution, if a trademark is linked to products of shoddy
quality, or is portrayed in an unwholesome or unsavory context, the trademark may
become:
a. Blurred
b. Tarnished
c. Infringed
The correct answer is b. Tarnished. Trademark tarnishment occurs when a trademark is linked to products of poor quality or portrayed in an unwholesome or unsavory context.
*. Which act was enacted in * as a response to the unpopularity of large business
organizations and concerns that some industries were dominated by few large firms.
d. Clayton Act
e. Lanham Act
f. Federal Trade Commission Act
g. None of the above
h. All of the above
The correct answer is g. None of the above. The act enacted in * was the Sherman Antitrust Act.
*.Which of the following statement(s) is/are true:
I. Attempts to monopolize are not illegal under antitrust laws.
II.Minimum resale price maintenance is not per se illegal under current antitrust laws.
III.All industries are subject to antitrust laws.
a. All statement I is true.
b. Only statement II is true.
c. Only statement III is true.
d. Only statements I and III are true.
e. Statements I, II, and III are true.
f. Statements I, II, and III are false .
The correct answer is b. Only statement II is true. Attempts to monopolize are illegal under antitrust laws and all industries are subject to these laws.
true or false: All industries are subject to antitrust laws.
True. All industries are subject to antitrust laws, which are designed to promote competition and prevent monopolies.
true or false:Minimum resale price maintenance is not per se illegal under current antitrust laws.
True. The Supreme Court ruled in Leegin Creative Leather Products, Inc. v. PSKS, Inc. that minimum resale price maintenance is not per se illegal under current antitrust laws.
true or false: Attempts to monopolize are not illegal under antitrust laws.
False. Under the Sherman Antitrust Act, attempts to monopolize are considered illegal.
read the prompt and be prepared to answer questions:
What specific legal issue or question do you need assistance with today?
Rory Stonebreaker, Cory Dealmaker, Amory Heartbreaker and Labory Biomaker
are college students at the University of Chicago. They used to live on-campus in college
dormitories. However, they got tired of living in small rooms and sharing bathrooms with
students they did not know. One day while they were waiting in line together to register
for classes, they complained to each other about poor living conditions in college dorms.
Soon thereafter, they decided to rent a two-story house in Downers Grove, IL, just
outside of Chicago, IL. Their landlord is Ms. Meana Ordermaker.
Rory, Cory, Amory and Labory have very different personalities. Rory
Stonebreaker is a typical college dude. He likes to party hard every night, enjoys going to
gym regularly, (he can lift * pounds on bench-press) worships video games and does
just enough to get by in school. Cory Dealmaker is a typical “my daddy has a lot of
money” type of student. Nothing is usually good enough for him. For example, he does
not attend very many college parties because they are too lame and he does not drink
cheap beer, he does not use the gym at school because it is too crowded and not so stateof-the-art, he hates the cafeteria food because it upsets his stomach. Cory spends his days
golfing with his buddies, socializing with other rich students and hanging out with
popular girls at cocktail parties. Cory is not particularly focused on school because he
already has a job lined-up in daddy’s company. Amory is “everything is meaningless”
type of student. He plays guitar, writes poetry, travels all over the world, follows
international politics, reads foreign philosophers and takes long walks. He does not study
all that much, but gets excellent grades. Labory Biomaker is “leave me alone” type of
students with really long hair. He is known across the campus as hygiene-deficient crazy
scientist who gets straight A’s. He spends his days experimenting in the lab or fixing
things at home.
Because of their differences, these four roommates often get in fights. For
example, Rory is a very neat guy and it bothers him when Labory does not clean the
bathroom after his rare showers (he leaves his hair in the tub and sink). Labory, on the
other hand, likes complete silence and it bothers him when Amory plays guitar loudly.
Cory, who is often out of the apartment, hates it when Rory wears his expensive clothes
when he is not around. Nothing significantly bothers Amory because everything is
meaningless to him but he has weird mood-swings and tends to “mad cow” on everybody
over smallest little things.
Lately, Rory started throwing parties regularly. That increased tensions in the
house even more. Labory could not stand the noise, Rory could not stand Cory’s “I am so
hot” attitude around girls and Amory could not stand it when some regular jerk would
dare to play his $* guitar. However, surprisingly enough, these parties revealed that
Amory is a true magnet for girls. Girls liked Amory because he would look them right in
the eyes when he spoke to them, he was a good listener, he carried very open-minded and
deep conversations about poetry, politics, traveling and general social topics. Amory was
just so smooth. Cory noticed that and did not like it. He even called one of Amory’s
former roommates to find out more about Amory’s past. It turned out that Amory was
very successful with girls even his freshman year. He allegedly had at least * very hot
girlfriends his freshman year. One of them was a high-profile executive woman in mid-
*
thirties who bought him a $*,* suit. Cory was shocked when he heard that because he
thought Amory was some kind of artistic loser. Cory is also successful with girls because
he seems sure of himself and kind of adventures. However, girls soon realize that he is so
sure of himself and adventures only because he knows he can hide under Daddy’s desk
whenever he gets in trouble, so girls get turned-off pretty quickly.
Later in the semester, things in the house got very nasty. Labory’s lack of hygiene
was driving Rory crazy. Since Labory kept leaving his hair in the tab and in the sink,
Rory decided to take action. One day, Labory fell asleep on the couch in the living room
while watching Science Channel on TV. Rory just came from some low-key-mid-week
party where he had a beer or two. When he saw Labory sleeping on the couch, he decided
to put an end on Labory’s annoying routine of leaving hairs in the tub and sink. Rory
eventually cut a big chunk of Labory’s hair. Labory did not feel anything while he was
sleeping, but when he woke up he was very upset because he did not feel like a scientist
anymore. He shaved all of his hair what made Rory very happy. They did not speak ever
after.
The next day, Cory was bringing some girl over he really cared about (his daddy
approved it) to play cards and to have some beers. Her name was Shelly. He actually did
not want to bring her to the house because he was afraid that Amory might try to get her
number, but it was raining so badly that he had no option. When they arrived to the
house, Cory asked Labory if Amory was at home while Shelly was at the restroom.
Labory informed him that Amory was in the basement watching a series of Polish
independent art movies. To make sure Amory does not interfere with his date, Cory
locked Amory in the basement and took the key with him on the second floor. Cory felt
pretty good knowing that Amory will not be able to get out of the basement as long as he
had a key in his possession. Amory was so into watching his polish movies that his did
not even go out of the basement to use the restroom. By the time he finished watching his
movies, Shelly was already gone and the basement was unlocked. Before Amory went to
the bed, he spoke to Cory about his day. When Cory told him he had a girl over, Amory
said that he thought he heard something but didn’t think anything of it. Amory said he
would come up to say hi, if he knew he had somebody over. Cory replied, “Yeah right,
you couldn’t even if you wanted to buddy, you were locked in the basement while she
was here.” Upon hearing that, Amory went crazy and said Cory would pay for it with
interest.
There were only two weeks left before the finals. So, Rory was planning to throw
a big party before the end of semester. He planned to start party on Saturday around 4pm
with some flag football and end it on Sunday around 7am. He told everybody he knew
about this party and said that everybody in the world was welcomed, except geeks from
the Northwestern University. So, Saturday finally came and people started coming over.
Just around 4pm, people started playing flag football. Some guys were just goofing
around, while others were very competitive. Eventually, Rory improperly tackled dude
named Softy and broke his ribs. He was taken to the hospital and was hospitalized for *
weeks.
*
Just around 7pm, Shelly came to the party looking gorgeous. Before she even saw
Cory, Amory saw her and went over to say hi. It turned out that they had some mutual
friends and indirectly knew about each other. While already intoxicated Cory was coming
over, Amory told Shelly “I’ll see you later” and taped Cory on the shoulder. Cory said
“Hold on dude, what is this all about? Did you get her number?” Cory then grabbed
Amory cellular phone aggressively to see if Amory had Shelly’s number. While trying to
get his phone back, Amory replied” Chill out buddy, I was talking to Shelly. O my God,
is that the girl you had over when you locked me in the basement? Give me my phone
back, you will break it!” Shelly jumped in “What? You locked him in the basement, you
are a freak.” Then Cory replied very loudly so that the whole room could hear him” I am
a freak, he a male prostitute that sleeps with rich women, I am sure he has all kinds of
sexually transmitted diseases.” Amory, who has no sexually transmitted diseases, called
Cory “a spoiled little daddy’s boy.” Cory took a bottle of empty Tequila and started
swinging it at Amory. He missed Amory and he almost hit Shelly. He didn’t want to hurt
Shelly in any way, but she got very scared and upset because he almost hit her. Some
people jumped in and stopped the fight.
As soon as everybody calmed down, two new incidents happened. First,
something exploded in Labory’s room. Apparently, one of his experiments with the
toaster went wrong. He tried to adopt toaster so that he could cook chicken in it. The
toaster could not cook chicken properly in its current condition because it would burn the
chicken from the outside, while I was still raw inside. So, he tried to make the
temperature of the toaster way lower than it was originally possible and he tried to
prolong the time of cooking before the toaster ejects the chicken. Apparently, something
went wrong and Labory got hurt. The manufacturer of the toaster was “Great Toaster
Inc.” Labory claimed that there was no warning not to cook chicken in the toaster and
said it was very easy to open the toaster and try to adopt it.
Second incident happened in the backyard. Apparently, bunch of students from
the Northwestern University got very upset when they heard that they were not invited to
the party. They decided to crash the party and ruin it. Their plan was to get over the
wooden fence and stir some trouble in the backyard. However, they did not know that
wooden fence was in a very poor condition and close to collapsing. Other people at the
party knew that and did not even lean against the wooden fence. At the time
Northwesterners tried to climb over the fence, nobody was in the backyard. However,
many broken glass bottles were all over the yard. Eventually, the wooden wall collapsed
and Northwesterners fell on the dirt full of broken glass. Most of them got very hurt and
screamed very loudly. Nobody had a clue Northwesterners were coming.
After these two incidents, Shelly said: “I had enough, I am out of this mad house.”
Shelly went to her car and drove way. She was so upset that she ran through the red light
and collided with another vehicle. Shelly was clearly at fault. However, she tried to
prevent the accident by stepping on the brakes and almost succeeded. She barely hit the
other car. Unfortunately, lady in another vehicle was very old and overly sensitive, so she
suffered severe injuries that an average person would not suffer. Shelly felt very bad.
*
Finally, this terrible night was over and everybody went to sleep. The next morning,
however, Amory ran into his old friends, John and Anna, who invited him to attend a
highly popular yoga class with them. Amory said: “Yes, I really need that right now.” At
the yoga class, they saw a flyer for an excellent seminar on macrobiotic diets that was
happening right after their yoga class, and it was only * blocks away. They all said, “OK,
all right, we are going, we must!” Unfortunately, on their way to the seminar they hit a
parked truck was that delivering “meals on wheels.” Apparently, the brakes on John’s car
were defective (a recall has been issued), and now John, Anna, and Amory plan to sue the
manufacturer for their injuries. Amory told them all, “ahh, ahh, this will be a nightmare!”
*. If Cory tries to sue Rory for wearing his expensive clothes when he is not around,
the likely outcome will be:
a) Cory wins, but only if he proves that every piece of his clothing is worth at least $*.
b) Rory wins, but only if he proves that Cory did not buy the clothes at issue (it was all
a gift to Cory).
c) Rory wins, but only if he damaged Cory’s clothes.
d) Cory wins, but only if Rory damaged his clothes.
e) Cory wins, even though the clothes were not damaged, and he never planned to wear
the clothes at issue again.
What evidence does Cory have to prove that Rory wore his clothes without permission?
If Amory tries to sue the regular jerk who dared to play his $* guitar, the
appropriate potential cause of action would be:
a) Assault on the guitar.
b) Battery on the guitar.
c) Invasion of privacy.
d) Trespass to personal property.
e) Defamation.
Did Amory give any kind of permission to the person to play his guitar?
no
If Amory tries to sue the regular jerk who dared to play his $* guitar, the
appropriate potential cause of action would be:
a) Assault on the guitar.
b) Battery on the guitar.
c) Invasion of privacy.
d) Trespass to personal property.
e) Defamation.
If Amory tries to sue the regular jerk who dared to play his $* guitar, the
appropriate potential cause of action would be:
a) Assault on the guitar.
b) Battery on the guitar.
c) Invasion of privacy.
d) Trespass to personal property.
e) Defamation.
no
If Labory tries to sue Rory for cutting a big chunk of Labory’s hair while Labory
was sleeping, the appropriate potential cause of action would be:
a) Assault and Battery.
b) Assault, but not Battery.
c) Battery, but not Assault.
d) Invasion of Privacy.
e) False Imprisonment.
What is the location of this incident? The laws regarding assault, battery, and invasion of privacy can vary by jurisdiction.
illinois
What is the relationship between Labory and Rory? In Illinois, battery is intentional harmful or offensive contact, and assault is intentional conduct causing reasonable apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive contact.
roommates who hate each other
What evidence does Labory have to prove Rory's actions? In Illinois, battery is intentional harmful or offensive contact. Evidence can strengthen Labory's case.
his hair is gone
What other evidence, if any, does Labory have besides the missing hair? In Illinois, physical evidence, witnesses, or any form of documentation can strengthen a battery case.
none