Intellectual Property Law

Patently-O Bits and Bytes No. 14Patent Law Blog (Patently-O)

Posted on February 20, 2008
Design Patent Law: The House Subcommittee on IP held hearings on amendments to the design patent laws. The two primary specific issues on the table are (1) whether to eliminate design patents covering replacement automobile parts and (2) whether to extend IP protection to fashion designs...

Washington Fashion Week 2: The Design Piracy Prohibition ActCounterfeit Chic

Posted on February 19, 2008
Looking for pligg users and blawgrs to beta test new online community. Send me email if you?re interested in helping out.  \n\n\n

McKenna on Trademark Use in CommerceTechnology & Marketing Law Blog

Posted on February 19, 2008
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Wikileaks Archive (Torrent, 2,000 files, 400MB)Cryptome

Posted on February 19, 2008
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Supremes Won't Hear Warrantless Wiretapping CaseWired: Threat Level

Posted on February 19, 2008
The Supreme Court turned down Tuesday a request to take up a challenge to the Bush Administration's warrantless wiretapping program, adding to the Administration's string of legal victories in challenges to the controversial, five-year-long program...

TWiL 12: Draft Lessigthis WEEK in LAW

Posted on February 19, 2008
The Supreme Court turned down Tuesday a request to take up a challenge to the Bush Administration's warrantless wiretapping program, adding to the Administration's string of legal victories in challenges to the controversial, five-year-long program...

Justice Scalia?s Opinion of Recent Video Game LegislationLaws of Play

Posted on February 19, 2008
Today I had the rare honor of not only attending a Supreme Court argument, but also spending an hour and a half with Justice Scalia, the Court?s second most senior Associate Justice. Those of you who are familiar with American jurisprudence are probably familiar with Justice Scalia?s reputation as an extremely conservative justice who is a strict originalist when it comes to constitutional interpretation...

"Anonymous Blogging and Defamation: Balancing Interests of the Internet."How Appealing

Posted on February 19, 2008
\\nToday I had the rare honor of not only attending a Supreme Court argument, but also spending an hour and a half with Justice Scalia, the Court?s second most senior Associate Justice.\\nThose of you who are familiar with American jurisprudence are probably familiar with Justice Scalia?s reputation as an extremely conservative justice who is a strict originalist when it comes to constitutional interpretation...

This Site Full Of Leaked Documents Is So Good, The Government Just Broke The Constitution To Shut It Down [Censored]Gawker

Posted on February 18, 2008
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Lawyers representing gold farmers threaten MMO bloggerWaxy.org Links

Posted on February 18, 2008
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Highlights from the Legal Guide: Deciding Whether and How to be AnonymousCitizen Media Law Project -

Posted on February 18, 2008
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Fraud and PreemptionThe Patry Copyright Blog

Posted on February 18, 2008
Issues involving when state laws are preempted are both frequent and vexing. A recent, marvelous opinion by Chief Judge Curtis L. Collier of the Eastern District of Tennesse is important for its insights into this difficult area. The case is Shuptrine v...

A Paper on Net Neutrality and Consumer Access To ContentMedia Law Prof Blog

Posted on February 18, 2008
The transcript of yesterday?s in-world discussion of Second Life intellectual property issues with attorney Frank Taney is now available at SLOG. I?m on the road right now and I couldn?t make it to the event ?live,? but it looks like it was a great session...

Inadvertent FilesharingMedia Law Prof Blog

Posted on February 18, 2008
The transcript of yesterday?s in-world discussion of Second Life intellectual property issues with attorney Frank Taney is now available at SLOG. I?m on the road right now and I couldn?t make it to the event ?live,? but it looks like it was a great session...

Patently-O Bits and Bytes No. 13Patent Law Blog (Patently-O)

Posted on February 18, 2008
The Budgetary Cost of Patent Reform: The CBO has released its cost estimates for the Patent Reform Act of 2007. A net loss of $1.4 Billion. Almost all of the additional cost is easily classified as ?pork.? The vast majority of the additional money would be to pay for takings claims created by the neutering of DataTreasury?s Check21 patents...

Copyright history conference announcement43(B)log

Posted on February 18, 2008
By way of Lionel Bently: AHRC Primary Sources on Copyright History Project:The conference will be Wednesday 19th and Thursday 20th March 2008 at Stationers' Hall, London; it's a comparative examination of copyright history. The conference is the culmination of a research project involving the creation of a digital resource concerning the history of copyright in five key jurisdictions; France, Germany, Italy, the UK and the US, for the period before 1900...

File "sharing" or "stealing"?Bit Player

Posted on February 18, 2008
"Invoking the metaphor is a shield against thinking," William Patry, the chief copyright counsel for Google, wrote on his blog a couple of years ago. The topic was "technical protection measures," but he's argued that bad metaphors are also behind the entertainment industry's rhetoric that unauthorized downloaders are thieves...

When to Hold ?em and When to Fold ?emThe Legal Satyricon

Posted on February 16, 2008
Should you press forward when the respondent surrenders in a UDRP proceeding? At least one UDRP panelist thinks you shouldn?t. In Laerdal Medical v. Lee, WIPO Case No. D2007-1672 (Jan. 21, 2008), the panelist devoted a lot of ink to scolding the complainant for its arbitration tactics...

Transcript of Q&A Regarding Second Life Intellectual Property with Attorney Frank Taney PostedVirtually Blind | Virtual Law

Posted on February 16, 2008
The transcript of yesterday?s in-world discussion of Second Life intellectual property issues with attorney Frank Taney is now available at SLOG. I?m on the road right now and I couldn?t make it to the event ?live,? but it looks like it was a great session...

Yesterday's Design Hearing in the HouseThe Patry Copyright Blog

Posted on February 15, 2008
There was a hearing yesterday in the U.S. Congress, in the House IP Subcommittee on H.R. 2033, the "Design Piracy Prohibition Act." The title of the hearing was "Are Special Provisions Needed to Protect Unique Industries?" The title reminded me of looking at the absolute worst efforts by first year law students to draft questions for certiorari, something like: "Does it violate Due Process for an evil serial killer of innocent children to die for his sins?" (It should be noted that the subcommittee chair is not a sponsor of the legislation)...

Virtual Trademarksmadisonian.net

Posted on February 15, 2008
In the past year, there have been some interesting developments in trademark law and virtual worlds, including the Eros lawsuits in Second Life and increased attention from legal practitioners (e.g., see this from WIPO). So, when I was recently invited by the Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal to write about user-generated content and virtual worlds for a very interesting Symposium, I decided to write a short overview of the topic of Virtual Trademarks with Candy Dougherty...

Recent reading: pastiche over parody43(B)log

Posted on February 15, 2008
Zahr Said Stauffer, ?Po-mo Karaoke? or Postcolonial Pastiche? What Fair Use Analysis Could Draw from Literary Criticism, 31 Colum. J.L. & Arts 43 (2007): Stauffer argues that rather than using the ill-fitting parody/satire distinction, courts should look at pastiche ? ?a genre composed of a number of mismatched or unusually combined elements, styles, or modes? ? to assess transformativeness...

Beta Testing:: Tech Law Advisor :: Reloaded ::

Posted on February 15, 2008
Looking for pligg users and blawgrs to beta test new online community. Send me email if you?re interested in helping out. 

McKenna on Trademark UseLegal Theory Blog

Posted on February 15, 2008
Mark P. McKenna (Saint Louis University - School of Law; Notre Dame Law School) has posted Trademark Use and the Problem of Source in Trademark Law on SSRN.  Here is the abstract:This paper mediates a scholarly debate regarding the existence and desirability of a trademark use doctrine...

SFLC launches legal primer for FOSS projectsIMPACT®

Posted on February 15, 2008
The Software Freedom Law Centre has today issued detailed legal guidance on free software/open source ("FOSS"). Aimed at those involved in FOSS projects, the 'Legal Issues Primer' seeks to deal with all key legal issues including: Choosing a licence Enforcing a licence (if you have an infringement problem, and polite requests can't solve it, maybe you can hire the Software Freedom Law Centre!) Structural/corporate issues Dealing with patent infringement claims Choosing and using a trade mark Whilst written from a US law perspective, much of the guidance will be relevant in other jurisdictions...

Second Life Intellectual Property Discussion Friday February 15 at 3:00 PM SLT (Pacific Time)Virtually Blind | Virtual Law

Posted on February 15, 2008
Today (Friday, February 15) at 3:00 PM SLT (Pacific) attorney Frank Taney, will hold an in-world discussion of intellectual property rights in Second Life. Taney represented plaintiffs in two separate real-life lawsuits stemming from virtual world activity last year...

Patry on Copyright:: Tech Law Advisor :: Reloaded ::

Posted on February 15, 2008
Title: The Rhetoric of the Copyright Debates [pdf] Date: March 11, 2008 Location: Copyright Society Event at Woodcock Washburn LLP Description: The use of rhetoric in copyright debates seems to have reached new levels. Although copyright debates always have been freighted with metaphors, moral panics, and folk devils, the rhetoric seems to have increased over the years as the focus of the discussions turned towards a very public medium ? the Internet...

Naked Cowboy?s Lawsuit Drives M&M Outta DodgeWSJ.com: Law Blog - WSJ.com

Posted on February 15, 2008
For all its faults, our legal system lets cowboys forego violence to vindicate their honor. ?They took down the video two days ago. Everyone?s telling me it?s an open-and-closed case,? the Naked Cowboy told the NY Post. The 37 year-old Naked Cowboy, whose real name is Robert Burck, was referring to his $6 million trademark-infringement lawsuit against M&M?s manufacturer Mars Inc...

Patently-O Bits and Bytes No. 12Patent Law Blog (Patently-O)

Posted on February 15, 2008
Anti-DataTreasury Provision: Although DataTreasury is not named in the Patent Reform Act of 2007, it is clear that Section 14 of the Senate Bill is primarily directed at that single patent holder. The bill would excuse ?financial institutions? from charges that their check imaging methods constitute patent infringement...

Blockbuster Fires Blogger for 'Divulging Confidential Information'Hacking NetFlix

Posted on February 15, 2008
Blogger Earnest Pettie was terminated for "divulging confidential information" in the following post about the Blockbuster price increase: Blockbuster Total Access?What went wrong?. Here's a selection from the post: To make matters worse, Blockbuster bungled Total Access further by changing the Total Access program prices and benefits and failing to effectively notify the customers of the changes...

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