Bangor Trademark Attorneys & Lawyers

What Are Generic Trademarks?

Generic trademarks are common terms used to name products or services, for example, a brand of shoes called "shoes". Generic trademarks describe a product, so no one can register them as trademarks. These marks don't qualify for any protection.

Why Generic Terms Can't Be Trademarks

Generic terms such as "computer" cannot be registered as trademarks because anyone has the right to use generic words to describe the products they are selling. Giving trademark rights to generic terms would make the English language poorer and would restrict competition. This rule applies to both the principal and the supplemental registers.

Adding a dot-com(or dot-org, dot-net, etc.) suffix to a generic term i

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A Guide to Trademarking a Business Name

Trademarking a business name can vary in the degree of complexity from simple to impossible depending on your specific business name.

In order to trademark a business name the main determining factor will be how unique or generic your name is. The more descriptive your business name is the lower the chances this will make consum

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How to Open a Bar in California

Opening a bar in California can be a costly, time-consuming endeavor. Just like opening a new restaurant, you will need a thorough business plan, approval of several government agencies, and many permits and licenses. This guide outlines the steps necessary to open a bar in California.

A Guide to Opening a Bar in California

Opening a bar in California can be a costly, time-consuming endeavor. But with the opportunity for high-profit margins on alcohol and food, along with cover charges, bars can be successful businesses. Just like opening a new restaurant, you will need a thorough business plan, approval of several government agencies, and many permits and licenses. This guide outlines the steps necessary to open a bar in California.

1. Create a Business Plan

Opening a bar is essentially

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What Is Intellectual Property Law?

Intellectual property law (IP) protects the rights of any person or business who creates artistic work. Artistic work can include music, literature, plays, discoveries, inventions, words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Intellectual property law aims to encourage new technologies, artistic expression, and inventions that all promote economic growth.

Types of Intellectual Property Law

Just like the legal system protects people's physical property rights, it aims to protect people's mental labor, which we call intellectual property. There are several different types of intellectual property.

Copyrights

Copyrights protect any type of expressive art, such as writings, music, motion pictures, architecture, and other original intellectual and artistic expressions. A copyright gives the owner exclusive rights to reproduce their own work, publicly display it, perform it, and create derivat

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A copyright protects “original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression.” It protects the way that ideas, facts and other things are expressed once they are in tangible form. A copyright covers both published and unpublished original works including artistic, dramatic, literary and musical works.

What is Copyright Infringement?

In short, a violation of the exclusive rights of a copyright owner is called infringement. This exclusive rights include the right to display, reproduce, perform or distribute the work. Copyright infringement is usually proven through circumstantial evidence since it’s sometimes hard to provide direct evidence of plagiarism. Two elements must be proven:

• that there is a substantial similarity between the copy and the origin

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