Tag: Design

Louis Vuitton Wins a $32 Million Trademark Judgment

That’s a pretty big sum for a trademark infringement case, litigated in a federal court in Northern California. What is interesting is it wasn’t levied against some knock off artists directly. Instead, the charge was contributory infringement (kind of like aiding and abetting) against web site hosts that allowed fake L.V. hand bags to be sold via the Web. This ruling will potentially have a big impact in the world of online retail. The case bears some similarity to Napster, which dealt with copyrights and online music exchanges.  In the L.V. case, however, it will be much harder in the future for fake goods sellers and their web hosts to escape unnoticed. This is, in sum, a big victory for trademark owners.

The full business wire story is here.

by Categories: Design, Intellectual property controversies, TrademarksTags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

To the Folks at Twitter: Use Trademarks to Monetize Your Traffic

I just read an article on a packaging blog that mentions how companies are adding their Twitter ID on product packaging. I agree with the article’s conclusion that it’s a smart marketing move that allows a company using this strategy to stay in touch with customers. Pepsi, for example, added “twitter.com/pepsiraw” to its Pepsi Raw beverage packaging.

Here’s an idea for the folks at Twitter, who have been criticized for not monetizing their customer base. Try licensing your trademarks to companies who want to add the Twitter ID to their product packaging. After all, you own the Twitter trademarks! You can license the brand name and logo for premium royalties, in my opinion.

I ran a quick search and found six live trademarks federally registered to Twitter.

by Categories: Design, Entrepreneurship, TrademarksTags: , , , , , Leave a comment

The Patent Piler

I met Allan Tokuda when I was a Teaching and Research Fellow at Northwestern University. I was helping teach a course on Innovation and Invention in the engineering program. Allan was one of the brighter and more inquisitive students. I knew he had some remarkable qualities when, before class one day, he took out a Rubik’s Cube. He could consistently scramble the puzzle and solve it in less than two minutes.

Allan and I eventually put our minds together to attack the problem of patent claim language and its obfuscating qualities. Allan brought top notch software coding and logical analysis. I brought my knowledge of claims and claim structures and the problems lay people and inventors routinely face when they try to read these sentences. Patent claims, for those new to patents, are the legal definition that describes the property boundaries of a patented invention. Patent claims are what get litigated in court and are located at the very end of the patent document.

The result of our combined efforts is something called the Patent Piler (at this Website). It is an open source project and resource guide that allows anyone to look up a patent by the patent number, search and compare any of that patent claims with other claims in the patent. Here is an image of how it works.

Patent Piler
Patent Piler

The tool, as shown above, highlights the differences between claims in the same patent.

Why is this useful? Oftentimes the most confusing thing about reading patent claims is distinguishing why one claim is different from another. One claim might be different from another due to a difference of just a few words.

The software also does useful things like break down claims by their type, for example methods, products, chemical compounds  or machines. The software also allows you to select independent claims, those claims which stand by themselves and are modified by subsidiary claims, called dependent claims.

Try it out for yourself. If you don’t have a specific patent to analyze, try inputting this curious patent number in the box: 6584450

If you like to code and want to make reading patent claims easier, try improving the source code, it is freely available at this site.

A quick note: for now the software runs great on Firefox, not so great on Internet Explorer.

by Categories: Entrepreneurship, Patents, Public domainTags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Starwood Hotels Alleges Trade Secret Theft

W Hotel
W Hotel

Starwood Hotels, owners of the W Hotel brand of boutique hotels, filed a lawsuit against Hilton Hotels and several former Starwood executives hired by Hilton. The lawsuit alleges trade secret infringement.

The complaint alleges that Hilton lured key W Hotel executives and that these individuals misappropriated W Hotel trade secrets to help Hilton with the launch of its Denizen brand of boutique hotels. The trade secrets listed in the complaint include:

  • Proprietary marketing and demographic studies that cost more than $1,000,000 to develop.
  • Training and operational materials.
  • The names of designers, property owners and developers.
  • Guidelines for how to create the “Ultimate W Experience’ in converted properties.
  • A dining concept called a “restro-lounge” designed to optimize food and beverage services in the W Hotel lobby-bar areas.

This is just another example of how far-reaching intellectual property has become. As brands become more important and as innovation touches on customer experiences created by companies, the intellectual efforts used create these assets will increase in strategic importance.  This kind of competitive knowledge is safeguarded by contracts called confidentiality agreements. Starwood Hotels required its executives to sign them, and this may be an important factor in this trade secret fight.

To read the entire complaint filed in District Court of New York, click here:  starwood20complaint

by Categories: Design, Intellectual property controversies, Trade SecretsTags: , , Leave a comment

Borrowing Blue

Smart marketing. That is what comes to mind when I think about what China Glaze has done with the branding behind its For Audrey nail polish. Take a look at the product.

For Audrey Nail Lacquer Ad
For Audrey Nail Lacquer Ad
Something Blue Counter Display
Something Blue Counter Display

Did you notice the clever associations the nail polish company created by relating the product to the blue color associated with an iconic jewelry store? Or the movie with that store’s name?

On its Web site, China Glaze calls this product a “Tiffany inspired turquoise creme nail lacquer”. But the word “Tiffany” does not appear anywhere on the nail polish bottles or the store displays.

Why is this all so clever? Because the color conjures up images of exclusivity, allure, romance and also a bit of decadence. How did this come about? There is actually a trademark tale behind it all. Tiffany & Co. owns the trademark exclusive rights to use the color robin’s egg blue for boxes, shopping bags, packaging and catalogs in various markets, including fragrances, tableware and crystal. The famous luxury retailer has done a magnificent job of managing this exclusive trademark color in the market for high-end luxury items.

Has China Glaze infringed the color trademark owned by Tiffany & Co.? Not likely since their nail lacquer is not included in the above categories.

by Categories: Design, Intellectual property controversies, TrademarksTags: , , , , Leave a comment

Knock-Off Awards

Can you tell the difference?
Can you tell the difference?

Shame on you. That’s the purpose of Plagarius, a German cereremony that awards the most blatant knock-off  artists. The purpose of the awards is to send a message that stealing innovations is not acceptable.

Having their innovations knocked off in this manner can be an innovator’s worst nightmare. With some money and determination, they can shut down the knock-off artists. This kind of behavior really highlights the law of the market: if you succeed others will imitate.

Click here for the full BusinessWeek story.

Acknowledgment: Thanks to Arvind Natarajan for sending me the link to this story.

by Categories: Design, Intellectual property controversiesTags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

What A Business Plan Competition Judge Looks For

Successful entrepreneurs write good business plans. Good business plans win competitions.

I routinely conduct business plan competitions in my entrepreneurship class. As part of the job, I have to recruit savvy and successful entrepreneurs to serve as judges for each competition. Someone who I have often asked to judge is Dan Brown, President of Loggerhead Tools and inventor of award-winning and blockbuster products like the Bionic Wrench. Dan is a true entrepreneur and master of industrial design, patenting, marketing and merchandising.

This year, I want to give my students a leg-up and show them what expert judges look for in a business plan competition. So, naturally, I asked Dan. Here is what he replied.

Dan’s Top 10 Business Plan Presentation Topics:

1. Is there a market opportunity? Does your product or service address an unmet or underserved need and add value to customers?

2. Identify and claim your white space. Have you identified a market segment best suited to establish a strategic foothold for launch?

3. Claim an opportunity gap. Have you realistically identified your competition,  and is there an opportunity for sales based on a value-added strategy?

4. Carefully define the wow-factors. What are the customer-getting differences that add value and compete for the customer’s attention and dollars?

5. Are there opportunities for intellectual property protection? Look at patents, trade names, trade dress and other brand-reinforcing strategies. Do a thorough intellectual property search to be sure there will be no unpleasant surprises after launch.

6. Research several competitive benchmarks and quantify the cost and sales drivers necessary for success in the market.

7.  Have a thorough and realistic development, investment and sales budget, with a realistic cost analysis for development, tooling, and commercialization. Know your costs.

8. Develop a roadmap. Develop an actionable plan that identifies the resources, costs and time required to complete product development and commercialization.  Failure to plan is planning to fail.

9. Generate a simple pro-forma (forward-looking) 3-year sales forecast of investment, cost, and projected revenue with a cash flow analysis. Do you show a return on investment?  Do the numbers support your plan?

10. Assemble a winning management team and advisory board that can succesfully complete the development, commercialization and management of your business.

by Categories: EntrepreneurshipTags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Kauffman Foundation Lecture

I just finished leading an intellectual property workshop for entrepreneurs here in Houghton, MI. The event was sponsored by the SmartZone, a local high-tech business incubator.

The FastTrac TechVenture Program is a learning program administered by the Kauffman Foundation. Here are some of the topics covered in this program:

  • Determine market opportunities and business strategies and pursue them successfully.
  • Define your target customers.
  • Develop a solid marketing plan.
  • Learn to assess and build a top management team.
  • Calculate the funding needed at each stage of your business and discover the best ways to access it.
  • Learn the importance of protecting your intellectual property through licenses, patents, trademarks, and copyrights.
  • Hone your elevator pitch and investor presentation.

One question was asked, and I think it would be useful to highlight. A participant asked,  “If a small technology entrepreneur has a valuable idea, what can they do to save money and protect their idea from a large company that just takes it without permission?”

Here’s a brief checklist:

1. Make sure you are an expert in your technology space. The more you know what the state of the art is, the less time and money you will spend defining your invention during the patenting process.

2. Understand the nature of your intellectual property rights. If you have a broad and solid patent, you can obtain, or threaten to obtain, a speedy injunction to stop competitors from copying your technology.

3. Patent litigation can be very expensive, with a full patent trial costing millions of dollars. A technology entrepreneur can share the expense of a patent trial with a contingency fee patent litigator. Several law firms specialize in taking these cases if: the inventor has a strong patent, there is a clear case of infringement, and the accused infringer has deep pockets. Here is one law firm that specializes in these cases.

by Categories: EntrepreneurshipTags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

News Brief: Lingerie Entrepreneur gets to Bottom of I.P. Controversy

Pop culture critic and journalist C.E. Hanifin recently pointed out a fascinating intellectual property controversy at Target Addict. That blog comments on a news story run by The Virginian-Pilot, involving I.P. and lingerie.

April Spring, of Norfolk Virginia,  obtained a design patent in December, 2008 for a design of women’s briefs marketed under her Foxers brand. This is the image of the design patent, as it was issued by the U.S Patent Office.

Design Patent D581,628 for Women's Briefs
Design Patent D581,628 for Women's Briefs

Spring’s design attaches an elastic waist band to the briefs, much like those seen on men’s boxer shorts.

Spring filed a lawsuit against Target, Corp. alleging the retailer knocked-off her design. The Foxers briefs are normally priced at between $20 to $26 a pair. The Target briefs that allegedly rip-off her design are priced at around $5 a pair.

Note: design patents are a special type of patent and differ from utility patents, which cover working inventions. Design patents cover only the ornamental look of a product, as opposed to how the product works.

by Categories: Design, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual property controversies, TrademarksTags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment