Intellectual Property Law

About Face

Posted on February 18, 2009
The New York Times reports the latest on the Facebook “license” story: After a wave of protests from its users, the Facebook social networking site said on Wednesday that it would withdraw changes to its so-called terms of service concerning the data supplied by the tens of millions of people who use it...

“The most dangerous libel decision in decades”

Posted on February 17, 2009
That’s how Robert Ambrogi describes this decision, as reported by Sam Bayard: Last Friday, the First Circuit Court of Appeals upended the generally accepted notion that U.S. defamation law does not impose [defamation] liability for truthful statements...

Vikings and pirates at sea, and you don’t need a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows

Posted on February 16, 2009
Pirate Bay, the massively growing file-stealing file-sharing website, is on trial in Sweden: Four men linked to The Pirate Bay were charged early last year by a Swedish prosecutor with conspiracy to break copyright law and related offences. . . . The group that controls The Pirate Bay, launched in 2003, says that since no copyrighted material [...

Administrative Note

Posted on February 16, 2009
Yes, this is the same blog. I had to switch back to the old theme for a couple of weeks — I’ve been having some trouble with WordPress “widgets.” A recent change to a new database and reinstallation, however, may have solved the problem.

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The magnificent seven

Posted on February 15, 2009
Blawg Review at the East Central Illinois Criminal Law & DUI Weblog: Today, we will find our inspiration in the seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. Without further ado, here are your submissions shoehorned into these categories...

Top 11 List

Posted on February 12, 2009
Take a look at the “Top 11 Cyberlaw Developments of 2008″ on the Technology & Marketing Law Blog.

Ha, ha. Hey kids!

Posted on February 12, 2009
M-I-C — Cease and desist! K-E-Y — Why?  Because we caught you! M-O-U-S-EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Hello world!

Posted on February 10, 2009
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Super ice cream!

Posted on February 09, 2009
Interesting licensing choices, Carvel ice cream store Originally uploaded by Ron Coleman They did license this, right? Of course right. What with all that advertising diligence.

Very popular in France

Posted on February 09, 2009
Mike Masnick: Google is being fined hundreds of thousands of euros for allowing certain trademarked [sic] words to have advertisements run against them. It’s hard to see how this makes any sense at all. First, unless the ads are designed to confuse someone, there should be no question that ads against a competitor’s keywords are perfectly legal...

Don’t be evil, much

Posted on February 07, 2009
It was bad enough that the government has gone “in house” on copyright issues.  Now not only is the government looking more and more “bought” on this, but the “Don’t be evil” kids — again, via Glenn — also continue to confirm everyone’s worst fears...

Copyright-wingers at the top

Posted on February 06, 2009
Sorry about all the politics, but this Slashdot item about the infiltration, via Joe Biden, of RIAA and BSA lawyers into the White House (via Insty) doesn’t bode well for the kind of “progressive” change on copyright law even a political right-winger such as your blogger may have been hoping for in Washington...

Iconography

Posted on February 05, 2009
Last week it was the O-Team preparing for lighting raids on Obama-brand-equity rustlers.  But maybe the Obama Administration needs to set its own  White House  house in order, as the AP reports that the AP is coming after President Obama for its piece of icon pie...

Canada: Courts can distinguish TM fraud from error

Posted on February 04, 2009
Larry Munn: The Federal Court recently made clear that Canadian law does not recognize a rule equivalent to the U.S. doctrine of fraud on the trademark office, pursuant to which any material misstatement in the processing of a registration renders the entire resulting registration void...

He’s the genuine item, all right

Posted on February 04, 2009
He’s already the most sincere, if not the swiftest, trademark counterfeiting defendant* of 2009, and though it’s only early February it may be hard to top Poynette, Wisconsin’s Vincent Konicek for a certain kind of earnestness and, well, um, some other sort of special quality that you just can’t … replicate: Rolex … filed a federal [...

The “Fair Use Massacre”

Posted on February 03, 2009
Fred von Lohmann of the EFF calls out YouTube: Fair use has always been at risk on YouTube, thanks to abusive DMCA takedown notices sent by copyright owners (sometimes carelessly, sometimes not). But in the past several weeks, two things have made things much worse for those who want to sing a song, post an a [...

“Yes we brand”!

Posted on January 31, 2009
Bloomberg News reports that “my generation”’s President is every bit as thoroughly modern as you’d expect.  In other words, no unauthorized drawing down of his icon-equity will be permitted: White House lawyers want to control the use of the president’s image, recognizing the worldwide fascination about Obama’s election, First Amendment free-speech rights and easy access to [...

“Sue now, explain later”

Posted on January 29, 2009
This is something to worry about: Straws in the wind: as federal courts use the welcome new pleading standards to dismiss more weak lawsuits at an early stage, plaintiff’s counsel grow discontented and talk begins to be heard of efforts to restore the sue-now, explain-later regime that prevailed earlier...

Smokin’!

Posted on January 28, 2009
Here’s a whole blog dedicated to “Cigar Law” — quite a bit of which is trademark.

Jiggering it out at the PTO

Posted on January 27, 2009
Oh, to be a hip, Jewish intellectual… property owner.  Stick with me here. A while back I was following the story of the PTO’s refusal to register the mark NIGGA.  As I put it then: Forget ?immoral or scandalous,? which, as we have said before, is an increasingly hopeless position for national government to take on almost [...

What the First Amendment isn’t

Posted on January 25, 2009
Eric E. Johnson published this last fall regarding the pathetic misunderstanding of what free speech does, and doesn’t, mean: Ben Stiller stars in the DreamWorks picture ["Tropic Thunder"] as a struggling actor, the high point of whose career is taking on the role of a man with mental retardation, seen as a film-within-the-film...

Adverference?

Posted on January 22, 2009
Working from home today after a bruising few weeks at work (see yesterday’s post!), I finally figured out what was going on with banner ads on my Internet browsing.  It raises an interesting question about Internet-related copyright and trademark law...

Authorized?

Posted on January 22, 2009
This better be, because The Force isn’t going to cut it for you these days!

Legal in Phoenix, liable in Central Islip

Posted on January 21, 2009
My client S&L Vitamins and I just suffered a devastating loss in its Eastern District of New York litigation against Australian Gold (now owned by a holding company called New Sunshine, LLC) after a five-day jury trial on claims by AG for tortious interference with contract and trademark infringement...

“We cannot allow our brand to be abused”

Posted on January 19, 2009
Originally posted on November 13, 2008: “We cannot allow our brand to be abused.”  What “brand” is that? The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. brand. The greed of the King “branders” was one of the earliest, and is still one of the most popular, posts on LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®, and it’s rearing its really unbecoming [...

Here, read this

Posted on January 18, 2009
While I’m busy with this Long Island jury, which — bless their souls — seems to be in for a longer shlep than they may have expected, I can at least send readers to the December Quick Links on Eric Goldman’s Technology & Marketing Law Blog...

Counterfeit arguments

Posted on January 18, 2009
Every year around Super Bowl time I post an item about the NFL’s overzealous efforts to impose a gridiron grip on all aspects of its somewhat valuable SUPER BOWL trademark: In 2007, the NFL tried to claim ownership of the euphemism of choice for the Big Game, THE BIG GAME Later that year, someone picked up on [...

Goodbye, dolly

Posted on January 17, 2009
Pamela Chestek reports on the dizzying fallout of the Bratz litigation.

How’s Trix?

Posted on January 14, 2009
Ryan Gile reports that it’s Trixy out there.

The second time as farce

Posted on January 12, 2009
On the occasion of the S&L Vitamins v. Australian Gold trial starting Wednesday, I’m reposting what I wrote here six months ago about the first of these these jointly evil twin litigation matters, conducted in appropriately welcoming environs, in which our client is entwined: O’Connor federal courthouse Originally uploaded by Ron Coleman Yesterday I was here, in [...

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