It’s a common story: client (we’ll call her Chrissi Crandall) has a dream, a plan, and a brand. She proudly informs me that she’s already found a great location for her bakery-café and “locked up” the trademark. I ask how and am told that she Googled it and registered the domain name clevelandcroissant.com. A good start, no doubt, if a little flakey. This isn’t a tale about the benefits of federal trademark registration at the USPTO or avoiding infringement (both critical stories for another day), but instead about the perils of descriptive branding.
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