Intellectual Property Law

Google and the bookmakers

Posted on November 11, 2008
Remember the Google book-scan lawsuit?  No, we hadn’t either; we hardly even remember books.  But thanks to Jaded Topaz we’re reminded, as she sends along word that it’s been settled: Here?s what happened: Yesterday, in what some say is the biggest book deal in U...

All a-Twitter

Posted on November 10, 2008
What is Twitter?  How does it work?  Why on earth would a lawyer want to get involved in such a thing? Don’t ask us.  Ask Nicole Black!

((*GONG*))

Posted on November 06, 2008
When we were in high school — this is the late ’70’s and early ’80’s — the old-fashioned institution of the high school “talent show” was transformed into “Gong Shows,” based on the cheesy 1970’s TV hit by Jewfro pioneer Chuck Barris, now recycled, as all remotely serviceable Hollywood ideas are, for moderns...

Ads for pirates

Posted on November 05, 2008
Imagine a world where producers and owners of TV shows, movies and the not only upload full-length copyrighted video content onto the Web in the full knowledge that it will be ripped off, but welcome the prospect? Why not, if they can sell advertising on the programming? MySpace and Viacom International-owned MTV Networks today moved to resolve [...

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Democrats to institute government monitoring of media

Posted on November 04, 2008
Already giddy with the power they expect to be delivered to them today, Democrats are promising to reinstate government control of public communication to insure what political appointees determine is “fairness” and balance: Asked if he is a supporter of telling radio stations what content they should have, [Sen...

Grok this, why dontcha

Posted on November 03, 2008
Via Denise Howell (via Facebook via Twitter, really… or is it the other way around… gosh…) Weird Al Yankovich reveals the unsurprising fact that despite its pride in bringing us many aspects of the worst popular culture has to offer, MTV has its limits in terms of free expression — when it comes to the [...

False light no problem for Jews for Jesus

Posted on October 31, 2008
Jews for Jesus*, a litigation-happy racket that not only bases its religion business entirely on LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION but for whom misrepresentation and falsehood defines its entire enterprise, has once again pushed the First Amendment in a direction that works for it and avoided legal sanction for its unethical, but legal, way of utilizing other [...

Business-process patents? Maybe not.

Posted on October 31, 2008
A twelve-judge panel of the Federal Circuit has dealt the concept of business-process patents what appears to be a significant blow in In re Bilski, a case decided yesterday: “We hold that the applicants’ process as claimed does not transform any article to a different state or thing,” the majority opinion said...

Hershey’s keeps pushing it

Posted on October 30, 2008
And as usual, Marty’s on top of it like chocolate sauce on vanilla ice cream. Hershey’s (Hershey’s’s?) pushing of the wrapper, foil and all, is one of our regular obsessions here.  You know, someone ought to do something about these guys…

Stop by Cardozo for lunch and get a tan!

Posted on October 29, 2008
Our [ahem, adjunct] law professor days are behind us, it appears, but we’ll be giving a presentation at the Intellectual Property Law Society at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law tomorrow on the topic of how intellectual property law is being used and abused in the service of anticompetitive practices...

Nomenclature matters

Posted on October 27, 2008
It matters what you call things, and how you use words.  Why?  Because if enough people who should know better use the word “trademark” as a verb enough times — you’ll get stupid stories like this: Although Microsoft Corp. registered the Web site for its new Windows Azure more than 14 years ago, it has not [...

He don’t lie, he don’t lie, he don’t lie…

Posted on October 27, 2008
Marc “Hussein” Randazza — who hardly needs extra stimulants in his life right this second — brings his “A game” to this very thorough consideration of the failure of the applicant for COCAINE as a trademark for soft drinks to overcome a PTO refusal to register on the grounds that the mark is … you [...

UK eBay seller sues buyer for negative feedback

Posted on October 25, 2008
That really takes chutzpa.  But it’s an odd choice for the seller, who would seem to have acknowledged the buyer’s complaint by refunding his money.  (That’s “seem” — it need not be the case at all.) On the one hand, of course, UK libel law is a lot more plaintiff-friendly than that in the U...

Copyright infringement mecca?

Posted on October 24, 2008
That term, courtesy of the MBA’s Andie Schwartz (who sent the link) could apply to the whole Internet, but it seems particularly appropriate for describing this development:  The elimination of the ten-minute limit on videos posted to YouTube: “YouTube is a clip culture,” says Jordan Hoffner, YouTube’s director of content partnerships...

Quote-unquote-copyright

Posted on October 23, 2008
Gordon Firemark reports on this very troubling story: Independent label Quote Unquote Records? website was recently taken down by its web hosting provider, after the label couldn?t produce copyright registration certificates for songs posted on its website in mp3 format...

You bet your BIPO!

Posted on October 22, 2008
Here’s a new patent blog from J. Matthew Buchanan of BIPO.  Recent posts: Patent Law Year in Review - Preparing presentation for DunesCLE in Las Vegas 21.10 Our green and cost-effective letterhead hack 29.09 My $7 I-forgot-my-business-cards insurance policy 24...

Cache me if you can

Posted on October 20, 2008
Eric Goldman has good — well, somewhat mixed, but more good than not good — trademark infringement news for search engines and other Internet players that use thumbnails: This lawsuit squarely revisits the ground covered in the Field v. Google case, which Google won for 5 different reasons–including that anyone who posts content to the web [...

Likelihood of conclusion

Posted on October 20, 2008
We won’t be online for a couple of days because of the last of the Jewish festival days of the season, Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah.  See ya!

Copy-resistant “Intellectual Property Colloquium”

Posted on October 17, 2008
Here’s another new way to get CLE credit from your computer:  Doug Lichtman, a UCLA law professor, has put together the Intellectual Property Colloquium, a series of learned discussions about IP law between Lichtman and other leading-edgiest of guys...

Looking smarter

Posted on October 16, 2008
An interesting development on the search-engine trademark infringement beat: In a weird development that looked impossible two years back, search engine giant Google Inc. last week agreed to cooperate publicly with Click Forensics, a click-fraud detection company with which it has had a rocky relationship...

Someone dropped in an extra zero, right? RIGHT?

Posted on October 16, 2008
It’s a month-old story, and how it got past us here notwithstanding, it’s not getting past us now.  Per the ABA Journal, remember the Bratz litigation?  Well, you haven’t read half of it yet: Two toy companies battling for rights to the Bratz dolls-with-attitude have racked up legal fees of at least $93 million in the [...

YouTube, the DMCA and politics — again

Posted on October 15, 2008
Slashdot reports: It appears that CBS and Fox have submitted DMCA takedown notices to YouTube for videos from the McCain campaign. The campaign is now complaining about YouTube’s DMCA policy making it too easy for copyright holders to remove fair-use videos...

Come, blawgers, let us reason together

Posted on October 13, 2008
Tune into this week’s Blawg Review at the Mediation Channel: It’s not merely “settling”!

Selling counterfeit DVD’s on 34th Street

Posted on October 12, 2008
Selling counterfeit DVD’s on 34th Street Originally uploaded by Ron Coleman While the IP-equity lobbyists are appointing copyright czars and planning endless dragnets against college students and their grannies, counterfeit media properties ripped off from major studios are sold openly on the corner of 34th Street and Seventh Avenue, with utter impunity, and, it seems, every day.

Think pink?

Posted on October 10, 2008
Think pink In a nearby Duane Reade: Pink-tinged Mint Milanos by Pepperidge Farm. You’re supposed to know that the pink on the package means raising money for breast cancer. Breast cancer owns pink. But what you’re thinking as you scan the point-o-purchase is, “They put some strawberry or something in the cookies...

Steal your plate

Posted on October 10, 2008
The Jews take a worldwide day off from eating, and what happens when they sit down and pick up their forks and knives to dig in?  Their enemies want to take their food away and get fees, too! MBA Legal intern Andie Schwartz sends along this item from Mike Masnick at TechDirt about what happens when [...

Electric… what?!

Posted on October 07, 2008
From the TTABlog® — not the brightest argument in the legal chandelier: Applicant Electric Visual Evolution argued that “the term ‘electric’ is not commonly used by the general public to describe a source of power for watches,” ...

Slap on the cuffs!

Posted on October 07, 2008
Nicole Black has written a very interesting article about how new media and social networking brush up against the New York penal code. Even if you’re outside of New York — it happens — the issues should be of interest, since most other states also have laws against crimes, as well as computers hooked up to [...

Regrets, I’ve had a few

Posted on October 07, 2008
But then again, too few to mention. The problem, of course, is someone else mentioning them. Google says it has the solution: When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you’re really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math [...

Dozier Internet Law: The Internet’s loose legal cannon

Posted on October 06, 2008
They’re back: A Virginia lawyer used intimidation and bullying tactics, including spurious trademark infringement and defamation claims, to shut down a Web site that criticized him, Public Citizen argues in lawsuit filed against the lawyer and his firm...

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