Intellectual Property Law

Five Will Get You Ten

Posted on January 25, 2010
Originally posted 2005-03-11 15:40:00. Republished by Old Post PromoterVery amusing colloquy at Balkinization arising from Jack Balkin’s prediction that the Supreme Court will “split” on the Decalogue case in a decision per Justice O’Connor that “upholds five, strikes down five...

Now that’s slow

Posted on January 22, 2010
The wheels of justice, they say, turn slowly.  The fact that they say this does not, however, in any way assuage clients, though it does seem to relax certain judges even more than they, unfortunately, are already relaxed regarding the motions, applications and other prayers gathering dust before them...

Naming Names

Posted on January 22, 2010
Originally posted 2005-02-15 14:44:00. Republished by Old Post PromoterThe ultimate branding device is a person’s name, although the oft-stated truism that “every man is entitled to do business under his own name” is far from absolute...

Life Imitates the National Debate

Posted on January 22, 2010
Originally posted 2005-05-23 15:19:00. Republished by Old Post PromoterOutgoing New York Times ombudsman Daniel Okrent writes about 13 Things I Meant to Write About but Never Did. A favorite, via Best of the Web Today: Op-Ed columnist Paul Krugman has the disturbing habit of shaping, slicing and selectively citing numbers in a fashion that [...

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Franchise quality control finds its own level

Posted on January 20, 2010
Well, I told you I had some serious questions… Franchise quality control finds its own level ©, .

Google, Google, Google.

Posted on January 20, 2010
Originally posted 2005-10-22 21:08:13. Republished by Old Post PromoterTold you. Google, Google, Google. ©, .

From “homage” to “infringement”

Posted on January 19, 2010
I’m not so doctrinaire:  Sometimes a press release is actually worth posting: For more than thirty years, as hip-hop evolved from the urban streets of New York to its current status as a multibillion dollar industry, hip-hop performers and producers have been re-using portions of previously recorded music in new, otherwise original compositions...

Urban Smear

Posted on January 19, 2010
Originally posted 2006-01-03 12:39:59. Republished by Old Post PromoterWe’ve blogged on graffiti before. Wordsmith to the stars Jane Genova reports on a little commercial free speech applied a bit too freely — as in, on other people’s walls: Seems Sony contracted with local graffiti artists to plaster urban space in seven cities with [...

Trademarks, copyright, brand equity, and rent-seeking: Soapbox 2010

Posted on January 17, 2010
From last week’s INTA Trademark Topics email discussion list.  One name has been changed to protect the innocent, and the links, by way of annotation, have been added, as have arbitrary pictures meant to break up the monotony. —–Original Message—– from:                               ATMLawyer@changedtoprotecttheinnocent...

Restaurant knockoffs

Posted on January 17, 2010
Originally posted 2007-07-05 16:45:27. Republished by Old Post PromoterMichael Atkins writes about the frustrations of a restaurant owner who seems to think — oddly, for someone who’s already hired a lawyer — he can’t stop someone from copying his restaurant decor and theme...

It’s Abboud time!

Posted on January 15, 2010
A year and a half ago I reported on designer Joseph Abboud’s attempt to sell his trademark “designer label” name to JA Apparel Corp., then count to three and go right back into competition with the company — using his own name...

Side by side comparison doesn’t decide likelihood of confusion

Posted on January 15, 2010
Originally posted 2006-07-11 17:14:18. Republished by Old Post PromoterThis is an important decision: The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has partially reversed the earlier ruling of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (full decision here) in Louis Vuitton Malletier v...

Gripes of wrath

Posted on January 13, 2010
If you’ve seen one disgruntled-former-law-associate attack gripe site, you’ve seen them all.  But I did like this point by gold-plated pariah Thomas Cafferty.  Because he’s so big on free expression, especially his of course (like the rest of us), I am certain he won’t mind my reproducing his whole rant, which actually looks like it could [...

Google Books debate

Posted on January 13, 2010
It’s all Google, all the time in our world.  (I know that because I did a Google search of our world.)  So, naturally, what’s the hottest multimedia download on the Federalist Society website? The Google Books Settlement New York City Lawyers Chapter December 14, 2009 Speakers: Prof...

Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos Page

Posted on January 13, 2010
Originally posted 2007-02-11 20:35:35. Republished by Old Post Promoter SportsLogos.Net — very interesting! Hat tip to MarkenBlog. Tuesday is “pitchers and catchers“! Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos Page ©, .

Pay no attention to that IP lawyer behind the curtain

Posted on January 13, 2010
Originally posted 2007-07-02 00:04:52. Republished by Old Post PromoterThe American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) wants to see a climb down on findings of “fraud on the PTO” based on the innocent misdescription of goods in trademark applications...

Aargh.

Posted on January 13, 2010
Originally posted 2006-07-31 11:35:07. Republished by Old Post PromoterMarketplace from PBS recounts a confused phone interview with a bona fide trademark pirate. Aargh. (Three-cornered — or is it a coolie? — hat tip to Bill Heinze.) Aargh...

Tweets for the sweet

Posted on January 11, 2010
It’s been a couple of weeks, but then again no one was really out there anyway — here are the recent topical tweets I’ve shared with the vast subscribership of @roncoleman: @Adrianos RT @ABAJournal: Meet John Doe: Internet defam. plntfs itching for the chance | (See mine here) @Alltop: 10 best and worst Internet company names of the [...

Old trademarks never die…

Posted on January 07, 2010
They just fade away. Mostly.

Online "Freedom of Speech Carveout" Bill and the Blog Privilege

Posted on January 07, 2010
Originally posted 2005-04-14 08:26:00. Republished by Old Post PromoterInstapundit points to RedState.org, which reports on the “Online Freedom of Speech Act” that was introduced in the House: Today in the House of Representatives, Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) introduced a companion piece of legislation to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s bill (S...

No more free ride

Posted on January 07, 2010
Originally posted 2007-11-06 12:53:29. Republished by Old Post PromoterAttributor is a new program that online publishers can and do use to trace their verbal content across the Internet and see who is using how much of their stuff without paying or attributing...

PETA: Presumptuous Endorsement-Taking Advertisers

Posted on January 05, 2010
They’re back! Animal “rights” nutjobs and selective-intellectual-property enforcers PETA has photoshopped a picture of Michelle Obama into an ad, creating an unauthorized endorsement by her of their harebrained efforts — thus creating one of those grand moments in history when two different LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION® streams — PETA’s hypocrisy on IP and the Obamas’ ongoing problems with [...

One Bloggin

Posted on January 05, 2010
Originally posted 2005-01-12 00:00:00. Republished by Blog Post PromoterBob Cox pointed me in the direction of this coverage of the Apple trade secret litigation: Blogs Persist Despite Apple’s Suit: “The Macintosh maker obtained a court order to subpoena the AppleInsider and PowerPage sites after it filed a suit on Dec...

Flag Burnings Increase Dramatically

Posted on January 05, 2010
Originally posted 2005-06-22 10:51:53. Republished by Old Post PromoterThat’s the headline you will read as soon as this idiotic amendment is ever added to the Constitution. UPDATE: Actually, remember this hot number? Maybe that amendment’s not such a bad idea after all!

Through WINDOWS®, darkly

Posted on January 05, 2010
Originally posted 2007-07-29 00:03:06. Republished by Old Post PromoterMr . Thorne, legal marketing wordsmith extraordinaire, wonders: Why would a court opinion use the magic ® symbol to refer to one registered trademark and not others? And why would an IP law firm feel obliged to the same (unless, perhaps, they represented the owner [...

Half a decade of CONFUSION

Posted on January 04, 2010
This week begins begins the sixth year of blogging at LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®. LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION® has been recognized by a number of list-makers from time to time and, what is very gratifying, seems frequently to be among a handful of “established” soft IP blogs honored with a link on the starting blogroll of new entrants [...

McCain comes clean

Posted on January 04, 2010
Originally posted 2006-04-30 14:54:00. Republished by Blog Post PromoterSenator McCain finally admits his hierarchy of values: The Constitution is nice, but a mainstream media monopoly on opinion is nicer. (Via Instapundit.) No wonder they like him so much! UPDATE: On reflection I realized that this post requires more than smarm...

War Is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength

Posted on January 04, 2010
Originally posted 2007-03-28 19:08:24. Republished by Blog Post Promoter And free speech is a form of negotiable intellectual property, right? Maybe I can give up the blog. There is no percentage in clever commentary when the claimants provide the self-parody...

There’s a first time for everything

Posted on January 03, 2010
Jeremy Phillips reports on some “thought I’d seen it all” hijinx from the renowned European Court of F’rinstance: Although [the IPKat] e is generally reluctant to criticise individual IP rights owners for seeking to protect their market position, and equally reluctant to criticise those members of the IP professions who represent them, there are times when [...

Judicial Canuck Stooges Spit in Uncle Sam’s, Barbie’s Eyes

Posted on January 03, 2010
Originally posted 2005-07-21 19:13:53. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Gen. Richard Montgomery, Conqueror of Quebec A “New York judge ruled that Mattel ha[s] no jurisdiction in Canada and that [the] owner [of BarbiesShop.com], Barbie Anderson Whalley, can keep the name of her store and website” — so says CTVNews, a media outlet serving the [...

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