When Out of the Closet (California), a non-profit HIV/AIDS company, learned about Out of the Closet (Alaska), Gov. Palin’s favorite second-hand clothing shop, the California non-profit promptly demanded that Alaskan store change its name.

Ms. Arvold, owner of the Alaskan store, has agreed to change the name of her store by year’s end.

The Naked Cowboy, of NYC Times Square fame, (aka Robert Burck) has dropped his lawsuit against Mars, Inc. for trademark infringement.

This article is an interesting discussion of what happens when a movie studio objects to the title of another studio’s film.

An excerpt:

But glancing at the posters for Fox’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and the Asylum’s “The Day the Earth Stopped,” you’d hardly know the difference. And both have release dates scheduled for mid-December.

Well, maybe not. Or at least not if Fox has anything to say about it. This week, the studio quietly took action against the Asylum, firing off a lengthy cease-and-desist letter and hiring attorneys to go after the prolific purveyor of high-end, low-budget knockoffs of Hollywood blockbusters.

Not familiar with Asylum’s oeuvre? Perhaps you missed “Snakes on a Train,” which hit DVD right around the time New Line’s “Snakes on a Plane” debuted in theaters. Or May’s “Street Racer,” which debuted a couple of weeks after Warner Bros.’ “Speed Racer.” How about last summer’s “Transmorphers?” You get the idea. Produce a movie with themes similar to an upcoming blockbuster, then borrow a trick from the porn industry and title it something comically derivative, create parallel marketing materials and take advantage of the millions the studios spend to promote their hits.

OHIM has announced that it will be cutting trademark fees for small and medium size businesses.  

Charlie McCreevy, the European Union’s internal market commissioner, told an audience in Brussels he intended to propose a cut in the application and registration fees for a community trademark before the end of the year. He said there would be a simplified fee structure and that the cost would come down to about €1,000 ($1,254, £815). It is currently about €1,600.

For several years, the Alicante-based office – formally known as the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market – has been accumulating spare funds, thanks largely to the greater-than-expected popularity of the community trademark, an intellectual property right covering the entire European Union. These surpluses exceed €300m.

After Lego secured a 1999 CTM registration of its 2×4 dimension shape lego brick, one if its competitors, Mega Brands (it makes Mega Bloks), successfully sought cancellation of the registration claiming it was functional.  

Lego appealed the cancellation.  Today the European Court of First Instance rejected Lego’s application to reinstate its trademark.

Lego had submitted details of surveys showing that most consumers identified the plastic red brick with studs on top as the company’s brand, and that consumer perception had to be taken into consideration when the judges looked at ‘the essential characteristics of the shape at issue’.

But the judges ruled that consumer perception was not relevant to an analysis of the functionality of the design and that, if it was purely functional, the shape itself had to be available to everyone.

Heineken USA Inc. has concluded that the novelty Heineken neon clocks violate its Heineken trademark. So it sued the Chicago-based collectibles firm Scott’s Brewery Collectibles, demanding a permanent injunction and treble damages.

The action, filed on Oct. 22 with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, charges that Scott’s has used “exact replications” of the Heineken mark or “confusingly similar variations” in clocks sold in interstate commerce.

Heineken also claims that its reputation is being harmed (dilution) by Scott’s advertising, and that the “unauthorized” products mislead the public.