IPR Seminar - SCCCI in collaboration with LJ Vernus

Trademark Registration Intro Video - LJ Vernus

See us at our booth at SMEICC 2015 conference!

SAF Combined Rededication Ceremony 2015

This year's Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Day Combined Rededication Ceremony (CRC) ceremony was held at ITE Central and was graced by guest of honour, Minister for Social and Family Development, Mr Tan Chuan-Jin.

We should not take for granted the stability we enjoy in Singapore. LJ Vernus's team would like to take the opportunity to thank our servicemen and women for all the hard work and commitment that you have put in to keep Singapore safe!

More pictures here...

LJ VERNUS Promo Video

The Chinese New Year Edition

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

The LJ Vernus team took some time off on Wednesday, 25 February 2015 for a hearty CNY lunch and lo hei session.

Also known as the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, this major festival is celebrated by all Chinese around the world to mark the turn of a new year in the Chinese calendar. It is usually accompanied by a lo hei session, which is the tradition of ‘tossing up good fortune’ using Yu Sheng or Raw Fish Salad. Families and friends gather to toss the salad while saying auspicious well wishes out loud to usher in good luck. It is also believed the higher you toss the ingredients in the salad, the greater your fortunes will be.

This year, the team decided to have a lo hei session with a modern twist and held it at Fish and Co instead of the traditional Chinese restaurants.

Check out the snippets below which were taken during our team lunch!

Happy CNY from LJ Vernus!

The usual few and a warm welcome to our newest team member, Elynn, who is our in-house paralegal.

A typical lo hei salad consists of; white and green radish, carrots, capsicum, turnips, red pickled ginger, slices of raw salmon, prawns, crackers, topped with fragrant dressing of plum sauce, five spice powder and sesame oil.

Parody trademarking

I actually wouldn't mind getting one of these tees.

Major brands have always been subjected to parodies. In US, the Courts recognize parody as a defence against a trademark infringement action, although this area of law is not covered in Singapore.

Here are some amusing parodies and their not too amusing consequences:

North Face vs South Butt (2007 - 2011)

In a nutshell: The South Butt was started in 2007 by Jimmy Winkelman as a parody brand that sells clothing. It was issued a cease and desist letter by North Face and in 2010, both parties reached a settlement in which the terms are undisclosed. However, instead of abandoning the brand, Winkelman proceeded to launch The Butt Face. This time, a judge ordered the Winkelmanns to abandon their application for "The Butt Face" trademark, shut down their web store and Facebook page, surrender all merchandise and pay $65,000.

Read more here

Saks Fifth Avenue vs Snaks Fifth Avenchews (2014)

Oh look! Puppy!

In a nutshell: Snaks Fifth Avenchew was served with a cease and desist letter from Saks Fifth Avenue for the usage of her company name. For most small businesses, it would have been easier (and spared them the litigation expenses) if they were to just change their name. But what if you have spent a lot of time, effort and money on your branding? In this case, Snaks business owner, Carrie Sarabella, is not ready to just give up on her brand and has hired a copyright lawyer. It has been argued that

the name was acceptable under the so-called fair-use law, which “recognizes that parody marks cause no harm to the established mark

Such determination proved to be worthwhile for Carrie as they've consequently received a letter from Saks, saying that they would no longer pursue the matter. As an added bonus for Carrie, she's received more publicity and her sales figures has never been higher.

Read more here

Here are more articles on parody trademarking that has gone wrong (or right, it depends)
Polo/Ralph Lauren overturn polo player on a bicycle trademark decision
Dear Google: Parody Is Not Trademark Infringement

Should you have any enquiries or other amusing trademark parodies, feel free to drop us an email or tag us in your replies!

Happy Holidays everyone

As 2014 comes to a close, we'd like to take a moment to reflect and count our blessings. It has been a tumultuous year due to many shocking events that took place all over the world. However, the human spirit is resilient and we have managed to survive these losses and look forward to a new year.

LJ Vernus would just like to thank our family, friends and colleagues for all the support they've shown this year. Granted, we might have only met for a brief while at a conference or we have only communicated via the phone and email, but each and every one of you are important in helping us pave our way to success.

We hope that 2014 have been a good year for you and we look forward to creating more meaningful relationships with not only family and friends, but also to our business partners.

With that, we'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The CSR Edition

What goes around, comes around.

In view of the upcoming festive season, LJ Vernus has taken some time off to slow down and do our part for charity. But this time, we have also engaged the participation of 2 other local companies to join us.

Together with Silver Negative Studios and Global Project Services, we have managed to purchase and deliver 24 cartons of basic commodities which included Milo, condensed milk and assorted jams for the residents of an old folks home. 

On the 9th December 2014, various members from each company headed down to the home with the commodities in tow. We also had the pleasure of touring the premises and meeting some of the residents there.

A banded effort

This year, LJ Vernus had decided to take CSR to another level. As a SME, we realize that we want to make a bigger impact on society, but due to the lack of resources, it is difficult for us to organize an elaborate CSR plan. This is where the Inter Business CSR Initiative comes into the picture. 

We aim to get more SMEs on board so that we can plan and execute bigger CSR initiatives such as fundraising days, donation drives, excursion trips and many more. Also, considering that most SMEs do not have a dedicated CSR department, we also aim to provide the infrastructure to save time and energy.

A stepping stone

We've decided on a simple donation drive as our first step. At the moment, there are 3 companies on board, being, LJ Vernus, Silver Negative Studios and Global Projects Services. As the new year approaches, we hope to add more companies via word of mouth and future marketing plans.

Here are some pictures from our December 9 charity drive!

PRESS RELEASE: Local SMEs team up for joint CSR initiative

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

9 December 2014

Contact: Azimah Jailani, Marcom Executive

Phone: +65 6746 2858

Email: azimah@ljvernus.com

LOCAL SMES TEAM UP FOR JOINT CSR INITIATIVE

9 December 2014, SINGAPORE – LJ Vernus has teamed up with 2 local Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Silver Negative Studios Pte Ltd and Global Projects Services Pte Ltd in their inaugural joint Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative.

Initiated by LJ Vernus, the main aim of the movement is to not only contribute back to the society, but to also form a business network amongst SMEs in Singapore. The banding of multiple companies also provides more opportunities to carry out extensive charitable activities.

Earlier today, members from each company had made a trip to Ju Eng Home for the Senior Citizens to deliver some basic commodities. LJ Vernus hopes this this will be a good stepping stone to encourage more SMEs in Singapore to join in future charity initiatives.

Director of LJ Vernus, Mr Edward Jui, mentioned that, “I believe that many SMEs are already giving back to the society, but they want to make a bigger impact. By centralizing this, we save time spent on planning but still manage to execute bigger charity activities.”

LJ Vernus is an Intellectual Property firm specializing on trademark, providing expertise on trademark registration and prosecution services as well as integrated IPR solutions to businesses in Singapore, Malaysia, Asia and around the world. For further information, please contact Azimah Jailani at +65 6746 2858.

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