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Who Wants to Be an IP Attorney? Open Article in Another Window
October 2005
If you've ever wanted to be in IP attorney, here's your chance to do it--or at least to pretend you're playing one on TV.
General Credit
1. Trademarks apply to words and symbols only.  True  False
2. The hallmark of trademark infringement is a substantial similarity between the goods sold.  True  False
3. A likelihood of consumer confusion is generally determined by applying a multipart test that considers, among other things, consumer sophistication.  True  False
4. Once a party secures a trademark, no one else can use that mark in connection with any other type of goods or services.  True  False
5. Trademark dilution occurs from overuse of a mark, or as a result of soaking a mark in water.  True  False
6. A plaintiff must establish actual dilution to prevail on a dilution claim.  True  False
7. A plaintiff is not required to prove actual loss of sales or profits to prevail on a dilution claim.  True  False
8. An â symbol can only be used by trademark owners who have obtained a federal registration for their mark.  True  False
9. Like “common law marriages,” there is no such thing as “common law trademarks” in California.  True  False
10. By obtaining a federal registration for a mark, the mark holder acquires a nationwide constructive date of first usage from the date the trademark application is filed with the United States Copyright Office.  True  False
11. A federal registration is prima facie evidence of ownership.  True  False
12. Using the â symbol without a federal registration is permitted so long as the mark holder obtains a federal registration within one year of use.  True  False
13. Senior trademark users forfeit their rights in all geographic areas upon a junior user’s federal registration of the trademark.  True  False
14. Trademarks last for 25 years from first use, or life of the trademark holder plus 20 years—whichever is longer.  True  False
15. Failure to use a trademark for three years will result in its abandonment.  True  False
16. A trademark that becomes so widely associated with the generic product it identifies that the consuming public begins referring to all products of that type by the mark may lose its legal protection.  True  False
17. The level of protection that a mark provides and its ability to serve as a mark depends on where it falls on a continuum that ranges from generic to coined, fanciful, or arbitrary.  True  False
18. Kleenex and Xerox may be trademarks, but not the roar of the MGM lion.  True  False
19. Before a party can establish trademark infringement, he or she must show that an actual sale of the goods or services occurred as a result of the consumer’s confusion.  True  False
20. It’s generally not a good idea to hang up on prospective clients, even when they phone with irksome questions.  True  False