James P. Flynn, a Member of the Firm and the Managing Shareholder of the firm’s Newark office, authored an article in ILN IP Insider, titled “‘Each Day Has a Color, a Smell …’: Searching for New Trademark Worlds.”

Following is an excerpt:

The search for spices, and the gold that one expected to find nearby (or earn through sale of the spices), in many ways drove the Age of Exploration.  And spices still hold a special place in our economy and in our imagination; in fact, we believe that spices “all hold magic.” Part of that magic is that spices give “[e]ach day … a color, a smell,” as we are told by The Mistress of Spices herself.  Well, color and smell (or the more delicate scent) are now adding spice to trademark law around the world as businesses explore new ways to differentiate their goods and services from those of their competitors.  Getting trademark protection for color and scent may depend where you seek such protections, as the rules vary from country to country.

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