I can counsel clients in other areas of intellectual property law and unfair competition law, such as trade dress protection, right of publicity, and false advertising.
TRADE DRESS
Trade dress is similar to a trademark. Trade dress includes a product’s design, product packaging, color, or other distinguishing nonfunctional element of appearance. Examples of trade dress include distinctly shaped bottles, the red and white color schemes of coca cola, or the color green for John Deere tractors.
The USPTO may allow a party to register its trade dress. The USPTO has a higher standard for registering certain forms of trade dress, such as color or product configuration. As a result, certain forms of trade dress may or may not be registrable. However, some unregistrable trade dress may still be protect-able.
RIGHT OF PUBLICITY
The right of publicity is generally defined as an individual’s right to control and profit from the commercial use of his/her name, likeness and persona. The right of publicity is protected by state law and is not uniform throughout the United States.
FALSE ADVERTISING
False advertising is an unfair method of competition forbidden under federal law and in most states, notably under the consumer fraud laws.
False advertising is a method of unfair competition forbidden under federal law and in most states notably under the consumer-fraud laws. False advertising occurs when a party makes false or misleading material statements of fact concerning his own product or another party’s product. The statement must actually deceive (or tend to deceive) a substantial portion of the intended audience. There must also be some link between the challenged statement and the harm that is caused by the statement.
False advertising misleads about a product’s place of origin, nature or quality, or maker. An example of misleading about a product’s place of origin is putting French labels on sweaters made in Arkansas. Promising first-quality socks and delivering irregulars or seconds is misleading about an item’s nature or quality. Claiming a Yugo is a Lexus is misleading about a product’s maker. As for services, false advertising would mislead you into thinking that someone has qualifications (such as being a master carpenter) that he or she actually does not have.