Tag: Trademark

What Happens When Your Trademark Loses Its Distinctiveness?

To be caught in a situation where your mark has lost its distinctiveness is truly awful, and potentially disastrous to companies or trademark owners. When you create a mark, with its uniquely coined name and/or logo, and seek protection for that creation, you would surely believe that it is exclusive and that no one else […]

Genericide: The Fallen Trademarks

One day, my brother and I were playing on the ESCALATOR. I wanted to play FRISBEEi but my brother wanted to practise tricks with his YO-YO instead. He had learnt the tricks from a VIDEOTAPE that mother had bought him last Christmas. I got a lousy WALKMANii  instead. Suddenly, I realised that Lucas, the HEROIN addict was right behind us. He had multiple BAND-AIDS on his […]

Freedom Isn’t Free!

Have you ever tried to register for an email or social networking account? Chances are your first few choices of usernames had already been taken up by someone else. Naturally, you would end up with silly usernames like “HunnyBunny” or “VinnyPeach”, which my colleagues have recently informed me, were slightly suggestive in nature. If I […]

“Handicapped” Protection For Descriptive Marks

The Singapore Court of Appeal (CA) was recently asked to decide on whether a descriptive mark could be protected against passing off if the descriptive elements of the mark were used by another party. The case was an appeal by the Singapore Professional Golfers’ Association (SPGA) against the decision of the High Court which found […]