Intellectual Property Law

Best of 2010: You got privacy in my policy! No, YOU got policy in MY privacy!

Posted on December 28, 2010
First posted on July 15, 2010.Mindful always of my civic duty, my unique relation to humanity, and legal webby things, I’ve updated the LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION® privacy policy.  Your family can rest secure in the knowledge that the policy is always readily available for your perusal, as well as for bar mitzvahs, etc...

Unlovely SPAM

Posted on December 28, 2010
Originally posted 2007-01-08 22:45:17. Republished by Blog Post PromoterHormel 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 [...

The ultimate license

Posted on December 28, 2010
Originally posted 2008-08-07 12:51:35. Republished by Blog Post PromoterWe’ve written before about the preposterous concept of asserting that stuff you buy and put into the trunk of your car and stick in a closet at home is really just a “license” to use that stuff...

Best of 2010: Gucci v. Frontline Processing: Giving credit for infringement where it’s due

Posted on December 28, 2010
First posted July 12, 2010. The essential role played by credit card companies in online trademark infringement was recognized in Gucci America, Inc. v. Frontline Processing Corp. In that case, the court allowed contributory infringement claims to go forward against companies that had established credit card processing for an online counterfeit merchant...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

The return of the scandalous mark denial?

Posted on December 27, 2010
Originally posted 2006-12-19 12:36:34. Republished by Blog Post PromoterPerhaps the “immoral and scandalous” rule is nothing to sniff at, after all. The Times asks: Will the COCAINE tradememark take a powder? I don’t know, but you have to just love the Cocaine pusher himself, Jamey Kirby, who strikes one as a thoughtful, public-spirited type: Opinions [...

Best of 2010: How Supreme Skateboard plays the edge

Posted on December 27, 2010
First posted on June 1, 2010. The new Case Clothesed blog out of New York Law School has a very interesting, if lightly sourced, piece about how Supreme Skateboard has managed for years to infringe a little bit here and a little bit there in order to maintain its status as a stylish, trendy “lifestyle/skateboard brand” [...

Best of LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®: Companies versus their fans

Posted on December 27, 2010
Originally posted 2009-07-07 11:42:48. Republished by Blog Post PromoterWalter Olson: The famous maker of candies and candy-dispensers is suing the owners of the Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia in Northern California, claiming that its venture into Pez homage, which includes a Guinness-record largest replica of a Pez dispenser, infringe the firm?s trademarks and ?deceive the [...

Patently Flattering

Posted on December 24, 2010
Originally posted 2005-11-07 09:43:21. Republished by Blog Post PromoterMy old friend Dennis Crouch — no, even older! — whose Patently-O blog labors mightily and effectively to make patents comprehensible, lists a few new IP blogs and rounds up his favorites (we say blushingly)...

Best of LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®: Nuts to us? Or a “real” Charlie Brown Christmas?

Posted on December 24, 2010
Originally published December 9, 2009. Instapundit links to this item about the incredible shrinking Charlie Brown specials — warmly-remembered favorite scenes from the annual Peanut broadcasts being incrementally excised from annual broadcasts to make room for more and more commercials...

Virtual seizures

Posted on December 24, 2010
Originally posted 2008-01-03 15:10:38. Republished by Blog Post PromoterAndrew Cory tipped me off to this article in the Law of the Game blog involving a judicial “seizure” of gaming-world “assets.” Talking to Andrew and tackling the article, I have the impression something very interesting is going on here...

License revoked

Posted on December 24, 2010
Originally posted 2008-06-25 18:46:13. Republished by Blog Post PromoterEver wonder about this new thing — where someone sells you some stuff, typically something that has some sort of copyright on it, only when you take a close look it turns out they tell you, no, they didn’t really sell it to you — they only [...

Best of 2010: If you see something? it?s probably ?trademarked?

Posted on December 24, 2010
First published on May 12, 2010. A while ago, while obsessing about New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its obsession with turning what might have once merely been viewed as functional municipal signage or insignia into “IP ,” I made fun of the MTA’s trademark application (since approved) for IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING...

Best of 2010: An opinion to Di for

Posted on December 24, 2010
First posted on May 5, 2010. I do a lot of bellyaching around here about how there are never any consequences for filing frivolous trademark and copyright lawsuits. What’s the worst thing that can happen to a well-heeled plaintiff that wants to use the expense of defending, even meritoriously, against a “federal case” as a [...

Best of 2010: Moral rights in Massachusetts

Posted on December 23, 2010
First published April 12, 2010. Lee Gesmer reported last month on a pretty important decision in copyright law:  A First Circuit ruling applying the Visual Rights Act, which–well, Lee says it very well himself, actually: Mass MoCA is the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art Foundation a contemporary art museum in North Adams, MA...

Nolo contendere

Posted on December 23, 2010
Originally posted 2008-11-23 14:16:27. Republished by Blog Post PromoterThere can’t be any dispute:  This is a blog a lot of people, and especially non-specialists, should read — Nolo’s Patent, Copyright & Trademark blog by Rich Stim...

Best of 2010: Forget breakfast — eBay eats Tiffany’s lunch

Posted on December 23, 2010
The Second Circuit, unsurprisingly according to most commentators, has affirmed the decision of the Southern District of New York refusing to find eBay liable for contributory trademark infrintgement in the Tiffany v. eBay case.  I have been following the case since before it was filed (yeah, bitter as usual!) and have written bunches of posts [...

Best of 2010: Mind bobbling!

Posted on December 22, 2010
First published on March 9, 2010. I’ve been known to sound the alarm about the rush to register trademarks, and all the more so to register anticipated trademarks.  I argue that — oh, forget it, even I’m tired of saying this over and over again...

Best of 2010: Foul ball?

Posted on December 22, 2010
First published on March 2, 2010. Louis Vuitton Malletier and its lawyers demonstrate how to make sure a few seconds of what they say is trademark dilution get a lot less diluted–they’re suing Hyundai over this commercial played at the Super Bowl...

Overreaching, Part XXVI — Major League Bozos?

Posted on December 22, 2010
Originally posted 2005-04-07 10:56:00. Republished by Blog Post PromoterThe Sports Law Blog reports on a story I first saw in the hard copy edition of IP Law and Business. A version of it (that magazine, like almost everything else, is owned by AmLaw Media) can be found here...

Best of 2010: Lug me tender

Posted on December 21, 2010
First published on February 24, 2010. Should a law school be tendering seven figures of money to a minor league baseball team for stadium naming rights?  That is certainly a novel question. I tackled the whole concept of branding, memory and stadium names in the context of the Mets’ Citi Field deal a few years [...

Best of 2010: The generic agony of defeat

Posted on December 21, 2010
First published on February 11, 2010. The best LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION® blog item title ever was evidently wasted  — and I’m sorry I didn’t keep you quite so up to date on this — but, as Ryan Gile reported less than two months ago on the case featuring the “my name is Coca and I [...

Diversion, yes, but no

Posted on December 21, 2010
Originally posted 2009-11-26 08:30:51. Republished by Blog Post PromoterSome people have all the luck in the Eastern District of New York.  Whereas me — I think I’ve got it coming to me right down the middle, and then it seems to get, I don’t know — diverted from me! So some lawyers get assigned judges [...

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

Posted on December 20, 2010
First 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...

Best of 2010: Online “Freedom of Speech Carveout” Bill and the Blog Privilege

Posted on December 20, 2010
First published January 7, 2010. Instapundit 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...

Keeping it real — the ultimate use in commerce

Posted on December 20, 2010
Originally posted 2009-05-07 12:35:59. Republished by Blog Post PromoterThe TTABlog® reports, again, on the fraud issue, but that’s not what interests me here so much this time.  Rather, it’s the question of the lifecycle of a trademark’s “use in commerce” status when plotted against that of a specific product which may no longer be manufactured, [...

COICA, trademark “McCarthyism” and hype

Posted on December 17, 2010
All the things in that title — Trademark “McCarthy”ism — make for a perfect storm for pitching Martindale.com’s new podcast feature, “Martindale Mike”: Title: COICA: McCarthyism 2.0? About the Podcast: This episode takes a look at COICA, the controversial new act before the Senate Judiciary Committee...

Best of 2010: “Drive-by infringement”

Posted on December 15, 2010
Steve Baird says initial interest confusion is “the real thing” and in the process  seeks to “add life” to Professor McCarthy’s famous “evil highway road sign” analogy: Whatever the criticisms might be to the doctrine of Initial Interest Confusion, including those detailed by our friends Ron Coleman, Marty Schwimmer, and Eric Goldman, in the context of keyword advertising, the road-side restaurant sign shown [at left] definitely is [...

Turn the other one? Or liberty? Or death?

Posted on December 15, 2010
Originally posted 2009-04-23 11:46:26. Republished by Blog Post PromoterRight — we will resolve these all here and now.  Key issues.  Fish or cut bait.  Or we most assuredly will all hang separately! The Daily Mail reports, ” Cheeky team applies to use ‘Obama’ as a European trademark“: A group of enterprising Spaniards is set to [...

The right to write

Posted on December 15, 2010
Originally posted 2006-05-03 19:33:31. Republished by Blog Post Promoter The online News of Australia reports (via Quizlaw) that a New York federal judge has granted a preliminary order preventing the enforcement of a New York City law banning graffiti-writing paraphrenalia — spray paint and broad-tipped markers — from purchase by those under 20 but above [...

Come, blawgers, let us reason together

Posted on December 15, 2010
Originally posted 2008-10-13 10:21:06. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Tune into this week’s Blawg Review at the Mediation Channel: It’s not merely “settling”! Come, blawgers, let us reason together ©, .

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.