Wolverine World Wide Inc. has more than 4,000 trademarksfrom shoes that it makes under its own brands, including Merrell, Hush Puppies, and Chaco, to footwear that it makes under license for the Patagonia, Harley-Davidson, and Cat brands. Not surprisingly, general counsel Ken Grady is constantly reviewing instances of possible trademark infringement. But thanks to Wolverine’s outside counsel at Seyfarth Shaw, Grady now has an app for that.
Seyfarth attorneys use the application, which works on both smartphones and tablets, to send a basic yet relevant breakdown of information to Grady: the mark in question, elements of the mark that raise suspicions of ingringement, the mark’s class and jurisdiction, the applicant’s name, the deadline for opposing the mark, the projected cost of opposing the mark, and an analysis from Seyfarth Shaw. Grady evaluates this information and then clicks “Yes” (meaning that Wolverine will oppose the trademark application), “No,” or “Needs further discussion.”
