The short answer is MAYBE. The United States, like many countries around the globe, but certainly not all, is a common law jurisdiction when it comes to trademark rights. This means that the right to use a given business name, product name, tagline, etc. stems from being the first to use that trademark within the geographic […]

This question comes up a lot in both the trademark as well as copyright context. In general, using quotes will be permitted. This is largely because using what amounts to a very small portion of a much larger body of work will not be considered copyright infringement and short phrases or small groups of words […]

In general, you are free to resell any lawfully purchased item and you are not required to purchase from an authorized source or be otherwise sanctioned by the maker, but doing so ensures the best chances that you are dealing in legitimate product. If the products turn out to be counterfeit you are responsible for […]

Using someone else’s branded product as an ingredient of your own or integrating it in some way will usually not be a problem, at least not under trademark law. But merely taking another’s branded product, removing that branding and replacing it with your own is a form of trademark infringement known as “Reverse Passing Off.” […]

As with so many other aspects of law, the short answer is… wait for it… IT DEPENDS! In general, you are free to use another’s trademark descriptively in text to refer to that mark holder. This is called “nominative fair use” and the classic example is using marks like “Coke” or Pepsi” in a menu […]