Tim Ackermann
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timack.bsky.social
Tim Ackermann
@timack.bsky.social
220 followers 240 following 820 posts
Patent & trademark attorney with over 25 years experience in helping protect businesses' trademark & patent rights. (Former @ntxip on you know where)
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timack.bsky.social
I see all the dashed lines - whatever could go in that cookie-shaped hole?
November 11, 2025 at 6:21 PM
timack.bsky.social
Ugh, another bad social engineering attack. Watch for this:
Once the mark accesses the malicious site referenced, it presents a CAPTCHA challenge or other pretext requiring user confirmation. The user receives an instruction to copy a string of text, open a terminal window, paste it in, and press Enter.
November 11, 2025 at 1:46 PM
timack.bsky.social
I suspect this helped...
Reviewing past rulings by the Board and various courts involving Dr. Langdell, the Board saw "an astoundingly abysmal record of disregard and contempt for the solemnity and integrity of government adjudicatory proceedings involving Respondent’s trademarks, and repeated instances of untruthfulness in such cases on the part of Dr. Langdell." From these rulings, the Board drew "a level of comfort" that its decision to reject Dr. Langdell’s testimony about pre-filing use "is not an outlier."
November 6, 2025 at 1:35 PM
timack.bsky.social
How does this start? Probably something like this:
Someone who seems like USPTO calls, emails, or texts you or someone in your company — urgently. They say your trademark application or registration will be approved — as soon as you pay. Or it’s about to expire — unless you pay immediately. They might even say someone else has applied for your trademark, so you need to pay quickly or risk losing it.
October 28, 2025 at 8:10 PM
timack.bsky.social
Useful post on avoiding trademark scams
www.ftc.gov/business-gui...
Don’t pay USPTO fees in response to demands in a call, email, or text. The real USPTO will never contact you to demand money. Not by credit or debit card, check, wire transfer, payment app, or gift card. Yes, there are fees to register and renew trademarks. But USPTO only requires payment at specific times and the agency has a very specific payment process — anything outside that is a scam.
October 28, 2025 at 8:08 PM
timack.bsky.social
Streisand Effect much?
In the end, the case became a classic example of the Streisand Effect, in which the attempt to censor information can instead call attention to it.
October 27, 2025 at 2:43 PM
timack.bsky.social
This should flow from the much earlier statement :
October 25, 2025 at 2:06 AM
timack.bsky.social
So, you're saying that it's not ideal...?
The browser, which is linked to Chinese online gambling websites and is thought to have been downloaded millions of times, actually routes all internet traffic through servers in China and “covertly installs several programs that run silently in the background,” according to new findings from network security company Infoblox. The researchers say the “hidden” elements include features similar to malware—including “key logging, surreptitious connections,” and changing a device’s network connections.
October 23, 2025 at 1:39 PM
timack.bsky.social
Reminds me of XKCD 538
October 23, 2025 at 4:55 AM
timack.bsky.social
There's a great, great book telling the story of Taffy 3's fight of Samar, and how those 'tin cans' rushed in and fought off a much more powerful IJN force to protect other units that were far more vulnerable.
www.goodreads.com/book/show/54...
cover image for "The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors" by James D. Hornfischer, showing sailors rescuing another from the sea
September 30, 2025 at 9:26 PM
timack.bsky.social
Nice - recalls the original for blank tape etc
tsdr.uspto.gov#caseNumber=7...
B&W image of man in chair in front of speaker that is blowing back his hair and tie (old Maxwell tape logo)
September 30, 2025 at 1:37 PM
timack.bsky.social
Ooh, it gets even worse: "It's time to transform."
teamraft.com/mynp/
picture of cartoonish spaceship with hands next to text: "Raft is your new Prime. We are the leader in autonomous data fusion and agentic AI, equipping the Department of Defense and national security organizations with cutting-edge solutions to drive mission success. We build modular, scalable data platforms and agentic AI capabilities that change the way our nation fights. IT’S TIME TO TRANSFORM."
September 4, 2025 at 11:41 PM
timack.bsky.social
And L'Oreal filed a trademark application for WONDER SNATCH too...
tsdr.uspto.gov#caseNumber=9...
USPTO TSDR status page for WONDER SNATCH trademark application
August 29, 2025 at 11:23 AM
timack.bsky.social
TIL - "skids" as a slang term
“It’s more so a litmus test to get rid of the skids easily,” Trikk said, referring to “script kiddies,” or skids, which are hackers with a lower technical ability.
August 21, 2025 at 1:57 PM
timack.bsky.social
The "AI"-designed deep submersible includes an "emergency baby" - I'm sure it'll be fine!
As a diagram of the AI-designed submersible shows, this groundbreaking vessel contains multiple sled-like "skids," a front-loaded thruster, an "escape harch [sic]," a "floutation haterial [sic]," a "spherical evercase hull" — alternately spelled "spherical evpercase hiull [sic]" in another part of the illustration — an "emergency tbaiht release [sic]," a "proutic haripotator [sic]," and, of course, the "emergency baby."
August 11, 2025 at 2:03 PM
timack.bsky.social
The generic names?
There's actually a reason behind it (below, via @daveamp.bsky.social's post).
The brand names? That's trademarks.
What Names Mean In naming drugs, the most important considerations are avoiding drug names that are too similar to existing names—and therefore might compromise patient safety—and making sure the drug name communicates accurate information about the action or use of the substance. Over time, the USAN and INN nomenclature scheme has developed into a system for classifying new pharmaceuticals.
August 7, 2025 at 5:26 AM
timack.bsky.social
Another quote from the show:
The Declaration of Principles
The Universe speaks in many languages, but only one voice. The language is not Narn or Human or Centauri or Gaim or Minbari. It speaks in the language of hope. It speaks in the language of trust. It speaks in the language of strength, and the language of compassion. It is the language of the heart and the language of the soul. But always it is the same voice. It is the voice of our ancestors speaking through us. And the voice of our inheritors waiting to be born. It is the small, still voice that says we are One. No matter the blood, no matter the skin, No matter the world, no matter the star, We are One. No matter the pain, no matter the darkness, No matter the loss, no matter the fear. We are One. Here, gathered together in common cause We agree to recognize this singular truth and this singular rule: That we must be kind to one another. Because each voice enriches us and ennobles us, And each voice lost diminishes us. We are the voice of the universe, the soul of creation, The fire that will light the way to a better future. We are One. S5:E3 The Paragon of Animals
August 1, 2025 at 7:32 AM
timack.bsky.social
The details make it sound even worse, TBH. Researchers tried to filter out the traits, and yet
As the blog post put it, “Student models finetuned on these datasets learn their teachers’ traits, even when the data contains no explicit reference to, or association with, these traits. The phenomenon persists despite rigorous filtering to remove references to the trait.” Perhaps worst of all, it’s not clear why this is happening or how to avoid it.
July 27, 2025 at 3:07 AM
timack.bsky.social
Soundtrack has been killing it too... From Variety:
Netflix and Sony Pictures Animation’s “KPop Demon Hunters” soundtrack — performed by a fictional girl group called Huntrix in the animated feature — claims the No. 2 spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart this week. The film and its soundtrack have been surprise hits, with Huntrix’s “Golden” single also peaking at No. 6 on the Hot 100.
July 26, 2025 at 2:40 AM
timack.bsky.social
Hey @kashhill.bsky.social, was digging up old legal education research files and found this (in hard-copy)!
2010 article by Kash Hill in "The Not-So Private Parts" on social media and privacy
July 19, 2025 at 5:16 PM
timack.bsky.social
4-panel comic. 1. Let me just... (person playing computer game). 2. finish this archer... (it's night and they person is older). 3. and then... (person has long gray beard, building decaying). 4. I will stop. (skeleton sits at the computer).
July 19, 2025 at 3:10 PM
timack.bsky.social
BOC's was a bit different, but evidently was still a symbol for a character from Greek mythology - Kronos!
www.symbols.com/symbol/the-h...
Hook and cross design used by the band Blue Oyster Cult
July 19, 2025 at 4:19 AM
timack.bsky.social
Here for the Wisconsin content - we're not getting up to the Lake this year...
photo of pier and steps down to pier looking into sunset on a lake photo of a lagoon leading to a lake, with a sandy beach on one side and trees on the other
July 1, 2025 at 9:47 PM
timack.bsky.social
Lulelemon argues that members of the public calling the Costco products "dupes" supports confusion, but doesn't that more persuasively show the public knows it's a competitor's product?
vocal.media/theSwamp/lul...
#dupes
The filing claims that customers have posted online reviews and social media comments referring to the Costco leggings as “Lululemon dupes,” suggesting confusion in the market. Lululemon argues that this confusion damages their brand, which has built a reputation for quality, performance, and style over two decades.
July 1, 2025 at 9:40 PM
timack.bsky.social
You're right that there's no technical explanation but, as explained, it doesn't seem that it's just optional compliance, like robots.txt.
With Cloudflare’s new setting, websites can block — by default — online bots that scrape their data, requiring the website owner to grant access for a bot to collect the content, the company said.
July 1, 2025 at 1:16 PM