Is it hard to overcome a non-substantive office action?

One of the best things about life in trama™ is that we come into a first-hand contact with inspiring entrepreneurs, their breathtaking inventions and that we can make our small contribution to making their business aspirations come to life! Omniwave is certainly one of these cases and together with Jorn Mineur, project manager at Bloomline which launched its Omniwave technology, we explore the entrepreneurial path that led to this novel product.

Ghana’s music festival Afrochella is accused of trademark infringement in a lawsuit filed by organizers of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. This is not the first Goldenvoice, the company behind Coachella, have appeared in headlines for enforcing its trademarks, showing that music festivals are just as adamant about their intellectual property rights as any other brand.

By definition, a trademark needs to display sufficient distinctiveness to identify the origin and ownership of the products and services. That means generic and descriptive words should be avoided at all costs. The landmark case in United States PTO v. Booking.com B.V, however, proves that a generic term combined with “.com” or another top-level domain can be registered as a trademark if there is sufficient evidence of consumer recognition.