On My Mind Blog

This article is about a 2024 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit arising out of the “trial of the century” in 1892 in which a jury acquitted Lizzie Borden of all charges that she had murdered her father and stepmother.  This sparked the rhyme,

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty wacks
And when she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one.

A bed and breakfast named “Lizzie Borden House” is operated in Fall River, Massachusetts by US Ghost Adventures, LLC.  Ghost Adventures also provides ghost tours, and it owns incontestable federal service mark registrations for “restaurant and hotel services” of the name LIZZIE BORDEN and of a notched hatchet blade design.

You’re checking your mail and discover an official-looking notice from a “domain registration” company, notifying you that your domain name is about to expire.  If that occurs, says the notice, you could lose your domain and your customers.

Despite any ideological differences, nearly all Americans can agree that the past twelve months have been a boom time for political catchphrases — Covfefe, anyone?  But can a third party stick a political catchphrase on a t-shirt or coffee mug and obtain a trademark registration?