One of the basic tenets of U.S. trademark law is that trademark rights may only be established upon use of a trademark in commerce. Whether the rights are established at common law, or whether a federal trademark application has been filed based on current use or intended use, trademark rights cannot attach until the trademark […]
This is the second part of a two part post discussing prescriptive easements. Last time we talked about how one of two neighbors (“Joe”) should be careful not to compromise or lose his claim to a prescriptive easement to continue using a road on his neighbor’s (“Jane’s”) property by using not so common, common sense. This time […]
This is the first part of a two part post discussing prescriptive easements. Common sense – that’s what guides most of us, most of the time, and that’s a good thing. However, when it comes to protecting property rights, common sense solutions can sometimes be dangerous. This is because some rules of property law are counterintuitive, […]
Brand trends in an industry, or at least branding plans for a particular player in an industry, can often be seen before they actually debut in the market by watching trademark filings. Under U.S. Trademark Law, a brand name, or trademark, can be protected before the brand name is ever used in the marketplace. This […]
The following blog post is from our friend, Bennett Lee, a Canadian wine lawyer located in Vancouver, British Columbia, working for the Boughton law firm. Bennett may be contacted at [email protected] and you can learn more about Boughton at www.boughton.ca. Vancouver, Canada may be one of the most livable cities in the world, but its […]
In the wine industry, one of the most common legal disputes is breach of contract between grape growers and wineries. Often times, grape growers are surprised to learn that, upon the delivery of grapes to a winery, they automatically have a statutory lien against any wine made from those grapes. This lien, called a “producer’s […]