Cannata Quoted in Newsday Article

October 20, 2016 | Intellectual Property

Michael Cannata was quoted in a recent Newsday article entitled, “Trademarking Hashtags: Companies’ Next Branding Frontier.”

In the article, by Jamie Herzlich, Michael discusses how Intellectual Property law pertaining to hashtags is still developing.

“A mark comprising or including the hash symbol (#) or the term “hashtag” is registrable as a trademark or service mark only if it ‘functions as an identifier of the source of the applicant’s goods or services,’ according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). So generally speaking, a hashtag, like a traditional trademark, doesn’t qualify for trademark protection if it’s generic or descriptive. For example, it’s likely that #hamburgers doesn’t qualify as a unique source identifier when used to market and sell hamburgers, whereas #McDonalds, when used by McDonalds to market and sell hamburgers, likely would.”

 

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