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Never-ending Litigations, Trademark Attacks and Other Problems Associated with IP Registration

Regardless of who may have drawn you into contentious litigations, trademark and copyright infringement must be dealt with when that intellectual property IP is your livelihood.  However, when your trademark or copyright becomes a repeated subject of attack, additional measures must be taken and that can be very expensive in time, money and concern. 

When it comes down to it, some people consider protecting a trademark or copyright to be more of a hassle (and potentially more of an expense) than they're likely to reap in protected commerce.  Many public universities (land grant institutions) don't bother protecting patents, such agricultural schools that don't defend their plant patents.  Since they can't make money from them as a private company might, there's no money to offset the cost of looking, testing and consulting, much less actually taking anyone to court during the course of litigations.  Trademarks are the same.

On the other hand, the potential pay-off from litigations of trademarks or other IP actions can be substantial.  The likelihood of litigations, trademark, copyright or other IP case being decided in your favour as the IP holder, is far better now than it was even 10 years ago, and certainly far better than in the 1980s when courts that heard such cases became federal.  Because of the increase in the number of litigations, trademark law itself has become a more lucrative field of study, drawing some of the best minds into these legal specialities.

When considering whether or not to enter into litigations, a trademark can be evaluated by its “strength.”  Generally, they tend to be stronger when you consider how long your company has been continually using the mark, if it's registered with the Patent and Trademark Office and how descriptive or suggestive it is.  Just because you own the trademark to a certain kind of something, doesn't mean you own the trademark or copyright to a wider class of that something.

Ultimately, you may want to put more effort into protecting your trademark or copyright on the front end rather than react to infringement on the other.  It never hurts to consult an IP attorney when bringing a unique product to the marketplace.  Being very careful to maintain and register your IPs with the proper authoritative bodies can help you avoid unpleasant litigations.  Trademark and copyright law favours the IP holder to such an extent that a strong trademark is enough to make a cease and desist letter a very effective tool in fighting trademark or copyright infringement.