The University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux are back! For now, anyway — although UND was just snubbed over the name, so watch this space.

The Grand Forks-based school has been embroiled for decades in a tug of war over its moniker and logo, which features a Native American warrior wearing a feather headdress.

Traditionalists have fought to keep it while those who believe it is offensive to Native Americans have long argued it needs to be retired in favor of something more politically correct.

UND officially dropped the divisive nickname in late 2011 but it was resurrected this month after local residents collected 17,000 signatures seeking to put the issue to a state-wide vote. As part of the process, a law requiring the school to reinstate the nickname went back into effect. Continue reading...

The folks at Samsung, busy promoting the Galaxy S II (its latest commercial is above), must be feeling pretty good in general these days. Samsung filed trademarks for ‘Samsung Joy’ and ‘Samsung Fresh’ smartphones on Jan. 13, cheerful names meant to elicit delight and spark interest.

“Both trademarks were registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and labeled as ‘telephones; smart phones; mobile phones; computer software for mobile phones, portable media players and handheld computers,” according to BGR.com. More will be explained at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February. GizmoCrave is hearing that Samsung will bring two new devices to the Congress, possibly entry-level handsets.

One thing Samsung likely isn’t feeling joyous about is its loss in a patent suit in German Friday against Apple.Continue reading...

The University of North Dakota’s basketball team went out onto the court for the first time in eternity without its old nickname, the Fighting Sioux, attached to them. No Native American mascot roamed the sideline, either. This came after a massive, years-long battle against the NCAA, which gave the word back in 2005 that colleges and universities needed to ditch their Native American sports monikers because they had been deemed offensive.

The University of Utah Utes, named for an American Indian tribe, have been sensitive to the issue for some time. Back in 1996, the school got rid of its Hoyo mascot and introduced Skyhawk. The Utes name, though, has stuck with the program and will for some time. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the school isn’t going to change its name and will stick with its “drum and feather” logo, though it isn’t clear for how much longer those symbols will stick around.Continue reading...

Since 1984, Hasbro’s Transformers toys have transitioned from robots into cars or weapons or those sorts of things. Then they became comic books and movies and now they have become a lawsuit.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that Hasbro and a computer manufacturer that has created a “high-end tablet/laptop hybrid computer dubbed the ‘Transformer Prime,’” Asus Computer International, are ready to do legal battle.

Hasbro filed suit claiming that its trademark had been infringed upon, THR adds, pointing out that one of its characters is named Optimus Prime as well as the existence of its licensed Transformers Prime TV series.Continue reading...

Two different gambling-related trademarks have led to legal cases involving millions of dollars. One was decided Monday and resulted in two men losing a $5 million case against the Georgia State Lottery, while the other remains a mess between a Minnesota casino and a Las Vegas signage maker.

The Georgia State Lottery folks must feel like they just won one of their own games since two men that were suing the organization for $5 million lost their case on Monday, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

The suit involved the logo for Georgia’s MONEYBAG$ game, a velvet pouch with wooden tiles, which George Kyle had registered as a trademark in 1995. It was used by the Georgia Lottery with permission from 1999 to 2002, but it also appeared on scratch-off tickets in 2005 and 2007, the Journal-Constitution reports.

“Scientific Games, which prints the tickets for the Georgia Lottery, did not seek Kyle's permission to use the logo again” and the Georgia Lottery went ahead with the game and grossed profits of $2.4 million in 2005 and $2.6 million in 2007, the paper reports.

In Monday’s 4-3 ruling, the state Supreme Court said that “the Georgia Lottery is shielded from liability by sovereign immunity,” the AJC reports, and that Kyle and another involved party, Frank Mankovitch “failed to legally establish trademark rights for their logo.”Continue reading...

This week, Old Navy launches its 2011 holiday marketing campaign, which "invites customers to 'Come fun, Come all' and experience the secret source of all Old Navy fun — the place where the brand's quirkiest ideas are born and tested."

The "magical tour of where the brand's fun and quirky ideas are born and tested" is called "Funnovations Inc."

It's a way for Old Navy to breathe a little excitement into the brand by giving consumers a look at, and some input into, its product pipeline. The only question is if Old Navy used its Researchovations department to see if the Willy Wonka-esque "Funnovations" was already trademarked. (Hint: It is.)Continue reading...

Tebowing! Is it a web meme? Is it trademarkable? Is it an affront to God and country? Will the all-powerful smite those who mock Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow? And can Tebow really be an underdog if, as he believes, God is on his side?

The only clear thing is that NFL fans, players and sports wonks are getting completely bent out of shape about something that won't matter in two weeks.Continue reading...

Gucci bags, Apple iClones, New Balance sneakers, jeans of all stripes, Oakley sunglasses, you name it. Head out to any major urban strip, market or sidewalk vendor and you'll find a plethora of knock-offs laid out on a table, selling for a low, low price.

Well, fakers beware. There are now 38 countries committed to an international anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting agreement.

At an Oct. 1st meeting in Tokyo, the United States and seven other nations signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which aims to stamp out piracy and intellectual property theft. Other new ACTA signatories include New Zealand, Canada, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, Japan, and Morocco.

Prior to signing, the US was embroiled in debates over the sections of the agreement pertaining to IP protection on the web, a hot-button issue that alarmed online privacy watchdogs such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, with some concerned about ACTA's constitutionality.Continue reading...