In this panel held at a 2007 meeting of the American Bar Association, attorneys Cydney A. Tune, Kelly Maser, Lawrence Apolzon and Philip Furgang delve into a little-understood but very important aspect of copyright and intellectual property law – trademarks and business patents. The panelists introduce the basics of trademarks are established, registered, defended and leveraged, how business patents work and how they may affect entertainment businesses, how trademarks generate money, how similar trademarks may coexist in the same marketplace, and more. They also take audience questions on a variety of topics related to patents and trademarks.

In this clip from an ABA forum held in 2007 titled “IP Meets Entertainment-Trademarks and Business Patents,” the panelists discuss what happens when two entities in the same marketplace have similar trademarks, and how a trademark coexistence agreement might be structured.

In this clip from an ABA forum held in 2007 titled “IP Meets Entertainment-Trademarks and Business Patents,” panelist Lawrence Apolzon walks us through a basic discussion of trademark law and how it works in the United States. He explains how trademarks get established and used, what kinds of trademarks are recognized in the USA, how as a lawyer to best meet your clients’ needs in this arena, best use practices, what dilution is, and what can go wrong if someone misunderstands or misapplies how trademarks work – whether it’s a company or a band trying to enter into a market and use a trademark to set themselves apart from the competition.

In this clip from an ABA forum held in 2007 titled “IP Meets Entertainment-Trademarks and Business Patents,” the panel fields a question about helping performing artists defend their name as a trademark against artists whose name might be confused with your client’s. The panelists explain how to know where the test of likely confusion begins to take hold, and how to prepare for the future when searching for prior use of their name.