Intellectual Property Law

Secondary trademark infringement: The whole of the law

Posted on September 07, 2009
Secondary Trademark Infringement — the website: This website is dedicated to an examination of the law of secondary liability for trademark infringement ? the idea that someone other than a direct infringer can be liable for infringing another?s trademark...

Unlovely SPAM

Posted on September 07, 2009
Hormel won’t give up. And neither will Spam Arrrest, LLC (which makes a great product I’ve used for years). A press release from Spam Arrest reports: Spam Arrest LLC, which provides the popular web service software to eliminate email spam, hopes to end its four year legal battle against Hormel next month...

Keeping it in reserve

Posted on September 04, 2009
This week’s Blawg Review is from The Inspired Solo, who, tacitly acknowledging that all the good jokes have been taken — having taken quite a few of them herself — wisely advises saving the inspiration for more important things, after all...

Unilateral copyright law

Posted on September 04, 2009
Eugene Volokh joins the pile-on regarding a website that claims to exempt its contents from the liberating effects of the fair use doctrine.  The North Country Gazette, a publication whose editorial fare contains a remarkably high percentage of Terry Schiavo-oriented stories, takes the position that due to this fiat, we cannot excerpt the likes of: An [...

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New York’s MTA Has an IP Obsession

Posted on September 04, 2009
The New York Sun reports that New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority has filed to register the phrase “If You See Something, Say Something” — its “watch out for presents from the religion of peace” campaign on the New York public transit system — as a trademark...

Fraud on the PTO: Is it real, or all in my mind?

Posted on September 03, 2009
Big decision, via the TTABlog®:  The worm, finally, finally, has turned on the issue of the cancellation of trademark registrations based on “fraud on the PTO,” typically arising where the description of goods and services in a registration application is found to be innacurate...

How not to make money in telecom

Posted on September 03, 2009
A jury ordered Vonage to pay $58 million in a patent infringement case brought by Verizon. But that’s okay — Vonage already “reported a net loss of $65 million for the last quarter.” It will just pay the damages by making it up in volume...

They always get their man

Posted on September 03, 2009
Assuming they want to recruit Snidely Whiplash. Originally posted 2007-02-20 19:07:14. Republished by Old Post Promoter

More fantasy sports litigation

Posted on September 03, 2009
We wrote in the past about the bogus “right of publicity” issue and the unsuccessful attempt by major league sports to claim ownership in statistics and grab a piece of the fantasy sports action for their fat selves. This one, reported by Andrew Braff, may be different: TEB Capital Management, “the owner of the publicity [...

Brand abuse on line

Posted on September 03, 2009
Tom Crandall gets graphic. Originally posted 2007-08-15 18:38:04. Republished by Old Post Promoter

What’s all this I hear about geographically misdescriptive?

Posted on September 03, 2009
The TTABlog presents, in effect, a primer, based on a recent Trademark Trial and Appeal Board decision, on the concept of why you cannot register a trademark that is “primarily geographically misdescriptive.” Originally posted 2007-02-08 11:37:12...

MTA’s way or the highway

Posted on September 02, 2009
I’ve been watching these guys at the MTA and their IP enforcement program for a while now.  Once was for a client, who, regrettably, didn’t want to fight. I first picked up on this over four years ago, when I wrote, The New York Times reported (yes, reg...

Avast ye, domain lubbers!

Posted on September 02, 2009
Your Name Is My Business explains domains on the Internet main — or at least one of them: sarcy dogs trying to make a virtue of a scurvy vice! Originally posted 2007-10-21 18:58:59. Republished by Old Post Promoter

A 3-D trademark – Taipei 101

Posted on September 02, 2009
Markenbusiness News reports: Skyscrapers can not only be landmarks, they can also be trademarks as well. That has now been made clear by the owners of the 508 meter high, 101 storey “Taipei 101″ in Taiwan. They were no longer prepared to accept that every postcard and souvenir seller can profit from the greatest tourist attraction [...

Not all ISP’s are created equal

Posted on August 31, 2009
@EricGoldman: Web host Akanoc hit with $32M contributory TM judgment for customers’ counterfeiting http://bit.ly/3BR6ZW Whoa. More to come … Louis Vuitton v. Akanoc jury verdict http://bit.ly/OCNwr & Aug. dismissal motion http://bit.ly/A1WQ7 My Jan...

The week in tweets

Posted on August 31, 2009
Here’s what you missed if you’re not yet floating in my social cloud: @VenerAbility: “The twin forces which could destroy Twitter are immature game-playing and PC taken to extremes.”http://bit.ly/Ax0rc @MegLG When trade marks go bad: Hells Angels lose bid to have logo items returned http://ow...

Times Op-Ed Columnists Have More Fun

Posted on August 31, 2009
One of our most excellent blog-related adventures was our involvement with Bob Cox of The National Debate and his wacky IP-abusive go-round with the New York Times. Bob’s point was that Times columnists should be held to the fire (however lukewarm it is at the Times) every bit as much as the inkstained wretches [...

Net neutrality panel at Fordham — April 2nd

Posted on August 31, 2009
Irina Tsukerman writes to tell me that “Fordham’s Geeks Are Out of the Closet.” Here’s the program for next Monday: The Future of the Internet: A Panel on “Net Neutrality” April 2, 2007 12:30pm – 1:45pm Room 430B Fordham Law School: 140 W...

Google News de-linked in Belgium

Posted on August 31, 2009
Yahoo! News: Google Inc. has been ordered by a Belgian court to stop reproducing article snippets from French-language newspapers, in an unprecedented copyright crackdown over what is a common online practice. The complaint against the world’s most popular search engine was lodged by Copiepresse, an organization which manages copyright for the Belgian French- and German-speaking press...

China’s feelings hurt

Posted on August 31, 2009
We’ve been following the domestic story of when trademarks hurt. (And get ready for this one, homey!) But we’re not the only sensitive ones out there, even if those sophisticated Europeans are beyond trademark offense. The The Hindu News explains that the Chinese government is hurt, offended, and its ego dented by [...

No joke

Posted on August 27, 2009
Noel Sheppard (via Insty) smells a rat: [T]he photo sharing website Flickr removed the Obama Joker picture that was later transformed into posters showing up in cities around the country. At the time, Flickr claimed it had acted on advice of counsel due to legal issues involving copyright infringement...

Hot fun in the summer time

Posted on August 26, 2009
A little while I ago I uploaded, at J.D. Supra, the three days of trial transcripts from last year’s desert extravaganza, the Designer Skin v. S & L Vitamins trial.  Which, er, technically speaking, I lost.  But, still.  The non-technical non-losing was really wild...

DC and Marvel — still winning Super Friends

Posted on August 26, 2009
John Welch has a report about an applicant for a SUPER HERO trademark registration for skin care productswho was bounced because, well, the owners of the existing SUPER HERO trademark –yes, that SUPER HERO trademark — pointed out that it doesn’t seem he really wanted to do anything other than, uh, have it...

Knockoff News in perfect form

Posted on August 26, 2009
Counterfeit Chic ties Joe’s record* with 56 consecutive knocks — 56 editions of Knock-Off News, that is! *Link to explanation provided for foreigners and Canadians.  Originally posted 2007-04-16 15:09:18. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Likelihood of Success

Posted on August 26, 2009
The likely blog for non-lawyers. Originally posted 2007-04-15 12:37:54. Republished by Old Post Promoter

And Let Google the Dogs of Law

Posted on August 26, 2009
It had to happen — another piece of territory now being rented out in the Lanham-Act-as-competition-buster industry: A new service has announced that it will scoop up the Google infringements for ya for a few kopeks. Their proud slogan: “Online trademark infringement is the act of using search keywords that specifically target another company’s brand to [...

My Old Kentucky Ho

Posted on August 26, 2009
When you think of the term “the world’s largest whorehouse” — and who among us doesn’t? – do you think of Kentucky? I guess I just don’t get around enough. The AP Reports on this chap, who preaches the “Gospel Truth” on his website about what a, er, “whorehouse” that big old state is...

Blog Juice?

Posted on August 26, 2009
Joy McCann, blogging on Dean’s World, comments on a Slate article suggesting that bloggers are the Euro-American version of rappers. In your bottle-full-o-bub’ dreams, Joy! Originally posted 2005-03-23 00:00:00. Republished by Old Post Promoter

American Graffiti

Posted on August 26, 2009
Graffiti: Art or crime? And by crime, I don’t mean mere vandalism. I mean criminally bad legal-decision-making.

Blogolation nation

Posted on August 25, 2009
What’s in a blog name?  Eh, not so much, it seems, at least when it comes to longevity.  My old friend Mark Herrmann of Drug and Device Law — who erroneously predicted incredible wealth for me about ten years ago but at least does know a thing or two about life-extension technologies — writes in [...

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