How Strong is Your Brand, Part V

A fanciful trademark is an invented word that serves no other purpose than to assist a consumer to identify and distinguish your goods or services. It may consist of a combination of letters and/or symbols.  Examples of famous fanciful marks include EXXON, KODAK, and...

How Strong is Your Brand? Part IV

An arbitrary trademark generally consists of a word that has nothing to do with the services or goods with which it is associated. For example, the trademark “Apple” is a well-known arbitrary mark that will be familiar to most readers. Under the common understanding...

Overtime Pay: Options For Employers to Reduce Costs

A.  Basic Overtime Rate: The Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) mandates that all employees not “exempt” from overtime pay be paid overtime for all hours “actually worked” in excess of 40 in any single workweek at a rate of 1 ½ times the “regular rate” of pay.  This...

How Strong is Your Brand? Part III

Up next in our discussion on the strength of your trademark are marks that fall under the “Suggestive” category of the spectrum.   Suggestive marks differ from merely descriptive marks because they do more than just describe a characteristic or quality of the...