Tampa Trademark Litigation Lawyers
The Tampa trademark litigation attorneys of Steele Law Group, P.A., bring more than 30 combined years of experience. The firm does not handle simple trademark registration or filing matters for individual clients. Steele Law Group, P.A., represents local and out-of-state businesses as well as referring attorneys in high-stakes trademark litigation.
Likelihood of Confusion
Trademark litigation stems from one company accusing another of stealing its identifying mark or symbol. A trademark can be a word, logo or other symbol that identifies a company's goods. When another company uses that symbol (or something close to that other symbol), it causes tremendous damage to the victim company, in terms of lost profits, damages reputation and litigation costs.
When reviewing trademark infringement cases, one of the defining issues explored by the court involves the "likelihood of confusion." For a trademark to be considered infringement, it must create the likelihood of confusion with the original trademark. The court considers the similarity of the trademark itself, the similarity of goods offered by the two companies and many other complex legal factors.
Initial Interest Confusion in the Computer Age
Meta Tag Trademark Infringement
Initial interest confusion, often considered trademark infringement, exists when a consumer or end user looking for information about one product is tricked into looking at another company unwittingly. A new wrinkle in initial interest confusion involves website meta tags. Meta tags are written content weaved into a website. Although they cannot be seen by the end user looking at the website, the search engines pick up the hidden terms and use them to drive traffic to these Web pages. According to the 11th Circuit, using another entity's trademarks in website meta tags is trademark infringement.
Remedies Available in Trademark Litigation
Plaintiffs who have established trademark infringement can petition the court for an injunction as well as damage awards that can include:
- Actual damages
- Profits earned by the infringing party on the trademark
- Attorney fees and costs
- Treble damages
St. Petersburg Trademark Infringement Attorneys
Steele Law Group, P.A., does not take consumer cases, cases on contingency, wrongful discharge cases or gender discrimination cases. Steele Law Group, P.A., takes cases for businesses, in-house counsel and other referring attorneys throughout southern Florida.
For arrange for a consultation with a lawyer from Steele Law Group, P.A., e-mail the firm or call 813-223-2060.
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The commentary, information, opinions, and analyses conveyed on this site by Steele Law Group, P.A. ("SLG"), do not constitute legal advice and shall not be construed as such. The content of the website may or may not be updated on any regular basis, so you should not assume that such content is current.
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Your access or use of SLG's website does not create or establish an attorney-client relationship. Very specifically, SLG will not provide legal advice to you unless and until you have entered into an attorney-client relationship with SLG in accordance with the "Client Engagements" section of this website.
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Client Engagements
If you want to enter into an attorney-client relationship with SLG, we must first:
(1) Clear conflicts of interest. You do not want to disclose any additional sensitive information to SLG, or to any employee of SLG, if SLG already represents a party adverse to you.
(2) Enter into a signed engagement letter between you and SLG. That engagement letter will outline critical non-financial terms, the scope of the engagement, and the financial terms of the engagement, including but not limited to whether those terms (i) involve a retainer, (ii) are predicated upon an hourly rate, or (iii) involve a contingent-fee arrangement.
SLG assists clients every day who have problems related to business transitions, employment terminations, and other competitive disputes. In particular, SLG represents and advises employees, agents, independent contractors, and other persons about the validity and enforceability of restrictive covenants in Florida. Given the fact-specific nature of that advice, SLG renders such advice only in written opinion letters signed by Thomas T. Steele. Any such advice not set forth in a writing signed by Thomas T. Steele is null and void and must not be relied upon for any purpose. Please write or telephone me about whether an attorney-client relationship makes sense for you on the facts of this dispute.
