Intellectual Property Law

Facebook Promotions May Be Easy to Develop, but They Can Create Legal Liability

Posted on March 18, 2011
In December of 2010, Facebook relaxed the rules on creating and implementing promotions designed to drive user ?Likes? to company Pages. It did so in part due to the marketing industry?s recognition that the value for each Like to a company Facebook page can be calculated in real dollars...

Dance the Copyright Two-Step When Working With Developers

Posted on March 18, 2011
Businesses often rely on the talents of creative independent contractors when developing original works like software, marketing media, and product documentation, to name a few examples. Many business owners believe ? mistakenly ? that the fact they paid for the contractors to develop the creative works in question means their companies own those works...

Do Not Track Me Bill Introduced in Congress

Posted on March 18, 2011
Last month, California Representative Jackie Speier introduced H.R. 654, the so-called Do Not Track Me Online bill, to Congress. The bill is the first response to the Federal Trade Commission?s December 2010 request for the establishment of a Do Not Track registry for online users that would be similar to the Do Not Call registry for telemarketing calls established in 2003...

Limewire Copyright-Litigation Woes Continue

Posted on March 18, 2011
In 2010, music-sharing website Limewire shut down amid allegations that it facilitated copyright infringement. Subsequently, a lawsuit brought by more than 30 music publishers was filed and settled under confidential terms. However, Limewire is still facing a lawsuit brought by 13 record companies, including Atlantic, Elektra, Interscope, Motown, Sony BMG, Virgin, and Warner Brothers, which is set for trial in May...

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Investments That Depend on Existing Creative Works Can Be Risky

Posted on March 18, 2011
Businesses often use famous creative works as source material for new marketing campaigns, construction projects or other investments. The Mona Lisa might serve as the subject of a new ad campaign for an printer manufacturer, or a cartoon character may be used to promote a new family-themed restaurant...

White House Recommends New Measures to Combat IP Infringement

Posted on March 18, 2011
On March 15, 2011, the White House released its White Paper on Intellectual Property Enforcement Legislative Recommendations, outlining a number of proposals for preventing IP-rights violations and for empowering the U.S. government to more effectively enforce copyrights and trademarks, including new punishments proposed for violations...

How to Handle Trademark Infringement on Facebook

Posted on March 08, 2011
Businesses are beginning to fully realize the immense marketing power of Facebook and other social media platforms. Users of these sites often log on daily to share personal information, pictures and videos, and informal product reviews and endorsements, presenting businesses with tremendous opportunities to engage and communicate directly with their customers...

Top Three Commandments for Protecting Online Content

Posted on March 08, 2011
Many businesses with strong and successful web presences find themselves in the position of having to determine how to respond to the unauthorized use of their web content by others. In fact, it is not uncommon for a web content owner to wake up one morning to find essentially its entire website ? which may be the principal vehicle for all of its marketing and customer-outreach efforts ? to have been copied nearly verbatim by a competitor...

Web Site Operator Faces Jail for Copyright Infringement

Posted on March 08, 2011
The U.S government continues to take strong measures against persons accused of illegally making copyrighted material available on the Internet. In a recent example, a Texas resident named Bryan McCarthy was arrested for criminal copyright infringement following an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security?s Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, and he now faces five years in jail for posting streaming copyrighted videos of live sporting events on his web site...

Sony Threatens to Ban Copyright Infringers From PS3 Services

Posted on February 23, 2011
In February, Sony posted a notice on its official PlayStation blog threatening to permanently ban users from the company?s online PlayStation services if those users deploy circumvention devices or software to ?jailbreak? their PlayStation consoles, thereby enabling those consoles to play pirated or otherwise unauthorized game software...

Considering an Asset Purchase? Due Diligence is More than Reviewing a Checklist.

Posted on February 23, 2011
Every savvy business owner understands the importance of due diligence when engaging in an M&A transaction, but the Third Circuit issued a ruling that serves to underscore the point that due diligence must be accompanied by a thoughtful risk assessment exercise...

Unauthorized Employee Use of Company Information Under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

Posted on February 07, 2011
In 1986, Congress passed the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, or CFAA, which established criminal liabilities for unauthorized access to information stored on a protected computer. Since that time, the CFAA has been amended to keep up with new privacy concerns and, in some cases, civil liability has been attached...

What Does it Mean to ?Trademark? Something?

Posted on February 07, 2011
Many business owners seem to have an inaccurate grasp of what it means to acquire trademark rights in a word, phrase, logo or other item capable of serving as a trademark. Usually in the context of a discussion of filing an application to register a trademark with the U...

E-discovery Risks in Social Media Use for Companies

Posted on February 07, 2011
Many companies today have their own company Facebook Pages, Twitter accounts or blogs. It is estimated that 4 out of 5 companies with more than 100 employees will utilize social media platforms to communicate with their current customers and to market to potential ones...

Congress Considering Legislation To Create Internet Kill Switch

Posted on February 07, 2011
As Egypt?s government seized control and cut off that nation?s access to the Internet last week, U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman reintroduced the ?Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010? legislation, commonly referred to as the Internet Kill Switch Bill...

China Makes Moves to Crack Down On Software Piracy

Posted on January 20, 2011
Chinese officials reportedly have arrested nearly 4,000 people in connection with software piracy allegations and have ordered nearly 200 web sites to remove content believed to constitute copyright infringements. Some Chinese web sites have replaced unauthorized content with deals from labels like Sony and Warner Brothers, but these web sites are struggling with the expense to acquire legitimately licensed movies and music...

Levi?s in Trademark Fight with Dolce & Gabbana Over Jeans

Posted on January 20, 2011
On January 10, 2011, Levi Strauss filed a lawsuit against Dolce & Gabbana based on claims that the Italian fashion icon infringed Levi?s registered, vertical-pocket-tag and pocket-stitching trademarks. Levi?s also alleged that D&G?s designs constitute a breach of a 1998 settlement agreement that the parties had signed to resolve an earlier dispute resolving the same trade dress issues in dispute in this new litigation...

Working On A License Agreement? Don?t Skimp On The License.

Posted on January 20, 2011
If you are working on a license agreement, don?t forget to carefully define what is and is not included within the scope of the license. ?Scope creep? has the potential to contaminate the parties? understanding of what the license includes and to damage the parties? relationship...

Sixth Circuit Recognizes Right to Privacy in E-mail

Posted on January 20, 2011
In a ruling handed down on December 14, 2010, the Sixth Circuit in United States v. Warshak held that a user of a third-party e-mail service has a reasonable expectation of privacy in the e-mails stored on the third-party?s servers. In the case, the government failed to obtain a search warrant based on probable cause before it compelled Warshak?s ISP to turn over his e-mail communications...

Match.com Sued in Potential Class Action Lawsuit

Posted on January 07, 2011
On December 30, 2010 Dallas-based Match.com was sued in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas by a group of individual plaintiffs seeking class-action certification. In the complaint, the plaintiffs allege breach of contract and negligent misrepresentation against Match...

President Obama Urged To Sign Patent Program For District Courts

Posted on January 07, 2011
President Obama was recently urged to sign a bill passed by the Senate on December 13, 2010, that seeks to educate US District Court judges on the intricacies of patent cases. The bill would send cases with one or more patent issues to judges who request to hear patent cases and would provide the judges with additional experience evaluating patent claims...

Microsoft Seeks to Add Additional Defendant to ?Click-Fraud? Lawsuit

Posted on December 27, 2010
On December 10, 2010, Microsoft announced that it was seeking to add an additional defendant to its pending federal lawsuit against RedOrbit.com, a news and information website intended for space, science, health, and technology enthusiasts. In its lawsuit, Microsoft has alleged that RedOrbit and, now, Vertro Inc...

Supreme Court Upholds Ninth Circuit Ruling Limiting First-Sale Copyright Doctrine

Posted on December 27, 2010
Omega sued Costco for copyright infringement, alleging Costco purchased heavily discounted watches from unauthorized resellers in Europe. Costco defended against the copyright claims by invoking the First Sale Doctrine, which allows a reseller to sell a copyrighted work without the original copyright holder?s permission...

Inaccurate Copyright Applications Can Result in Allegations of Fraud on the Copyright Office

Posted on December 27, 2010
Copyright registration is a necessary step for any owner of original content, but it is important to be vigilant when completing the application to the U.S. Copyright Office ? inaccurate information on the application can lead to significant copyright enforcement obstacles...

THUMBDRIVE® Trademark Saved from Becoming ?Genericized?

Posted on December 27, 2010
Many trademarks ? among them, ?escalator,? ?pilates,? and ?netbook?, to name a few ? have suffered the fate of being deemed ?generic,? often in the context of trademark disputes. In those cases, what may have once been words or phrases capable of identifying the source of a product or otherwise uniquely identifying the product in the marketplace have been found to describe an entire category of products, such that competitors would be harmed by one company?s continued monopolization of the term...

Ninth Circuit Emphasizes Importance of EULAs in World of Warcraft Holding

Posted on December 27, 2010
On December 14, 2010, in the case of MDY Industries v. Blizzard Entertainment, the Ninth Circuit emphasized an important point for online service providers and legal practitioners to keep in mind when drafting software end user license agreements. MDY Industries, maker of software program ? ?Glider? ? that automatically plays Blizzard Entertainment?s popular World of Warcraft game, filed a declaratory judgment action against Blizzard to determine whether MDY?s program infringes any of Blizzard?s rights...

U.S. Funds World-Wide IP Infringement Enforcement

Posted on December 27, 2010
The United States government has earmarked money for intellectual property enforcement education and training for many foreign nations. Countries including China, Brazil and several located in sub-Saharan Africa as well as Interpol will work with U.S...

Mississippi Becomes 46th State to Pass Data Breach Notification Law

Posted on December 10, 2010
Earlier this year, Mississippi passed legislation requiring organizations to notify individuals whose personal information is compromised by a data breach. With only Alabama, Kentucky, New Mexico and South Dakota as the remaining states without data breach notification laws, Mississippi joins the vast majority of states to have passed such legislation...

Dow Jones Settles ?Hot News? Content-Infringement Lawsuit

Posted on December 10, 2010
On November 15, 2010, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. settled a lawsuit it had filed against Briefing.com for Briefing.com?s systematic republishing of more than 100 time-sensitive Dow Jones articles. Dow Jones had alleged that Briefing.com?s actions constituted both ?traditional? copyright infringement as well as an infringement of Dow Jones? rights under the so-called ?hot news? doctrine...

Amazon?s Dropping of WikiLeaks Raises Cloud Concerns

Posted on December 10, 2010
With the intense scrutiny and speculation swirling around WikiLeaks? most recent posting of confidential U.S. State Department documents, it should not come as a surprise that Amazon, WikiLeaks? hosting provider, found itself under informal investigation by Congress...

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