Center Square

I finally got my childhood dream to be on a form of Hollywood Squares and as the center square, no less! The Orange County Bar Association's Intellectual Property Committee invited me to participate in its Zoom version of the venerable TV game show and I'm sure the ghost of Paul Lynde was watching. We focused on the topic of trademark clearance with the determination for each team being whether or not the mark contested was infringing. Likelihood of confusion factors we used come from the analysis first seen two decades ago in the Frehling case which considered the following: 1. Type of mark 2. Similarity of mark 3. Similarity of the products the marks represent 4. Similarity of the parties' retail outlets (trade channels) and customers 5. Similarity of advertising media 6. Defendant's intent 7. Actual confusion We had local trademark practitioners from prominent firms who practice IP in Orlando, both as panelists in the squares and on teams of X's and O's. Some cases were pretty close on the question of infringement leading to an exciting game of tic tac toe. This format was inspired by the past year of essentially living on Zoom in the little squares remniscent of this cheesy 1970s game show and such shows as The Brady Bunch. Thanks to Josh Brown for conceiving of this CLE!