Late last month, a federal court ruled that Dairy Queen cannot stop W.B. Mason Co from selling "Blizzard" bottled spring water even though Blizzard is also the name of a popular treat sold by the nationwide ice cream and burger joint. It certainly helps that W.B. Mason, an office products distributor with a considerable business presence in the Midwest and along the Eastern Seaboard, doesn’t sell ice cream treats. Or hamburgers and fries. It sells paper products. However, W.B

No two countries that both had a McDonald’s restaurant have ever gone to war, or so a popular international business/political science theory has repeatedly claimed, but the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has put a lie to the myth. Worse still, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (or whatever euphemism Russia has been using this week) has now led to the hamburger giant’s decision to leave Russia altogether. When Russia began its incursion three months ago, international pres

After a three-week jury trial, Stone Brewing Co. won its lawsuit against MillerCoors (now Molson Coors) for trademark infringement based on the misleading marketing Molson Coors' Keystone Light used to promote it beers in 2017. The San Diego federal court case came to an end when the jury decided that Molson Coors had unlawfully used Stone’s registered STONE trademark after the company rebranded its Keystone beer as STONE and awarded Stone Brewing $56 million. Ironically, Sto

The names Nike and Hermes rarely appear in a sentence together, even when discussing fashion apparel. But the explosion in popularity of non-fungible tokens (or more simply, NFT’s) has made them strange bedfellows. Athletic shoe and apparel manufacturer Nike has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against StockX for its creation and sales of an NFT based on Nike sneakers. French luxury brand Hermes has done likewise against Mason Rothschild. The cases were filed in differe

Last summer, Penn State University filed suit against (now) 80-year-old Paul L. Parshall of Naples, Florida, who has suffered two strokes and does not travel, but who has been using the trademarks "PENN STATE" and "NITTANY" in relation to selling beer and cigars (among other things). The problem? He doesn't have a license or an permission from the university to do so. In a joint report filed with the District Court last week, the university contends “Parshall’s infringement

If you’re a fan of the NFL, then you remember the 2014 Super Bowl. With time running out, the Seattle Seahawks were a play away from scoring the game-winning touchdown when a controversial play call led to an interception by New England and the championship belonged to the Patriots. You also probably remember some of the television ads that ran during commercial breaks and purportedly cost as much as $4.5 million for a single 30-second ad. In fact, the Super Bowl is so popula