Intellectual Property Law

That special something that says “infringement”

Posted on December 13, 2010
Paul Alan Levy sends along this heartwarming news about the Jenzabar case: In a ruling this week, a Massachusetts trial judge upheld the free speech rights of a documentary filmmaking company against an effort by a Massachusetts software company to use trademark litigation to punish the filmmakers for the portrayal of one of the student leaders in [...

Exactly Wrong on Free Speech for New Media

Posted on December 13, 2010
Originally posted 2005-05-02 20:01:00. Republished by Blog Post PromoterVia the permalink-less Kausfiles, a link to excerpts from (and suckup commentary about) remarks by CNN suit Jonathan Klein espousing the self-parodic, anti-democratic, anti-free-speech, and, yes, darn it, bad-for-the-children “MSM” concept that, well, alright, maybe we will let new kids play in our sandbox, as long as [...

No “30% solution”

Posted on December 09, 2010
Originally posted 2009-11-30 11:26:51. Republished by Blog Post PromoterHere I am, sitting 44 stories above the Garment District itself (when I’m not standing under its immortal needle, shown below), and I needed Staci Riordan‘s new fashion IP blog all the way out on the Left Coast to tell me about the “30% rule” which she, [...

Securing Innovation

Posted on December 09, 2010
Originally posted 2007-12-10 01:54:39. Republished by Blog Post PromoterWow, have you seen this?  SECURING INNOVATION | The Business Blog of IP.com about Managing Intellectual Property, Patents, Trademarks, and Trade Secrets.  Ponderous indeed, and with a smart blogroll, of course...

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Twitter experience

Posted on December 09, 2010
This was a mighty busy month over at LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION® — the lawyer, not the blog — meaning there wasn’t as much blogging as there might otherwise be, but those who follow my twitter feed (@roncoleman) could sleep at night, assured that I knew all kinds of things that other people said, and this [...

Canada: Courts can distinguish TM fraud from error

Posted on December 05, 2010
Originally posted 2009-02-04 04:15:08. Republished by Blog Post PromoterLarry 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...

Trademark City

Posted on December 05, 2010
Originally posted 2006-11-15 01:03:47. Republished by Blog Post PromoterThe Strategic Name Development blog reports that the naming rights to the New York Mets’ new baseball stadium have been sold to Citigroup. The stadium will be called “CitiField” and the privilege of that garish plug will cost Citigroup $20 million a year, or the cost of [...

More Trouble for Google from the French

Posted on December 05, 2010
Originally posted 2005-03-19 21:06:00. Republished by Blog Post PromoterReuters “news service” reports that “Agence France Presse has sued Google Inc. (GOOG), alleging the Web search leader includes AFP’s photos, news headlines and stories on its news site without permission...

Bad for branding, worse for trade secrets

Posted on December 05, 2010
Originally posted 2006-08-14 13:02:04. Republished by Blog Post PromoterPesticides in soft drinks, that is. Or even allegations of them. Boing Boing reports that a court in India has ordered Pepsi and Coke to cough up their respective formulas. UPDATE:  It’s not easy to tell, but I think this means they got out of it...

New fashion IP bill: Put in on HER tab!

Posted on December 05, 2010
But which “her”?  Two fashion blogs I know on two different coasts express two very different views about this… new fashion law bill thing.  I’m not even going to try to explain it — I bow instead to greater expertise. First, local favorite Susan Scafidi at Fordham says like this on Counterfeit Chic: The “yeas” have [...

Free Expression in Israel

Posted on December 01, 2010
Originally posted 2005-08-30 11:14:55. Republished by Blog Post PromoterJonathan Rosenblum has important thoughts. Free Expression in Israel ©, .

… and Europe Strikes Back: Google Loss Upheld by French Court

Posted on December 01, 2010
Originally posted 2005-03-17 21:11:00. Republished by Blog Post PromoterA friend painfully close to the case forwarded this link reporting that Google has lost its appeal of a judgment for “trademark counterfeiting” against the French travel companies Luteciel and Viaticum: GOOGLE LOSES FRENCH TRADEMARK APPEAL A French appeals court upheld a ruling against Google’s advertising policy [...

Click me

Posted on December 01, 2010
Originally posted 2010-03-09 20:56:18. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Click me ©, .

New Niche for the Numb of New York

Posted on December 01, 2010
Originally posted 2006-01-03 13:05:07. Republished by Blog Post PromoterJeff Jarvis reports that a new demographic has been discovered: I had to laugh at this quote from an entertainment exec in Saul Hansell’s NY Times story about Starz offering movies for download...

“The Victorian compromise”

Posted on December 01, 2010
Originally posted 2007-12-30 18:42:23. Republished by Blog Post PromoterDefamation and reputation management are issues of intense interest at LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®. Obviously cultural context means a lot when considering these two related topics. Here Daniel Solove reviews Professor Lawrence Friedman‘s Guarding Life’s Dark Secrets: Legal and Social Controls over Reputation, Propriety, and Privacy: Friedman focuses [...

Rededication

Posted on December 01, 2010
Welcome to Blawg Review.  Cold, rainy, prematurely wintry greetings from metropolitan New York. No exclamation point.  It has been that kind of year, it seems.  Nothing depressing about it, or it shouldn’t be.  That’s just life, and in particular that’s the way life feels at that dreary moment when you’re living it clustered around the [...

Defamation online

Posted on November 30, 2010
Originally posted 2006-12-11 21:43:28. Republished by Blog Post PromoterIt’s our future.  Instapundit rounds up developments, which Julie Hilden is all over.  I’ve made my point on this topic — less a legal than a cultural observation...

Cowboy rules

Posted on November 30, 2010
Originally posted 2008-06-24 11:29:06. Republished by Blog Post PromoterFrom the National Post, trademark news about a lawsuit brought by New York’s charming Naked Cowboy against the makers of M&M’s and its ad agency. The story is in Canadian, but you can still more or less make it out: Robert Burck, a New York street performer [...

Good blogging

Posted on November 30, 2010
[Updated] Congratulations to the authors of the following IP blogs that were recognized by the ABA Journal for being the best ones there were in 2010, even if they misdesignated one of them: Copyrights and Campaigns IP Kat IP Watchdog Patently-O Techdirt The TTABlog® Technology and Marketing Law Blog THR, Esq...

Trademarks in their entirety

Posted on November 30, 2010
Originally posted 2007-06-14 10:26:17. Republished by Blog Post Promoter “A cut above the rest” It is a well-known axiom that when considering the validity or infringement of a trademark, it is to be considered in its entirety — not broken into isolated elements...

Good Deed for the Day: Helping Old Producers Cross Agents

Posted on November 30, 2010
Originally posted 2005-05-03 20:10:00. Republished by Blog Post PromoterIn far-off Hong Kong, the Motion Picture Association has created a Boy Scout merit badge on copyright: “Boy Scouts in Hong Kong now can earn merit badges for learning about the wonders of copyright law–at least the version described by the Motion Picture Association,” reports Declan McCullagh...

It’s that time of day

Posted on November 30, 2010
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.  Duets Blog reports on an all-too rare occurrence in an item entitled, just a bit too gamely, “Trademark Bullies Beware the Seventh Circuit”:: Actually, not just the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals (governing appeals from the federal district courts in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin), but the Seventh Circuit [...

Gibson continues its IP-based business plan

Posted on November 25, 2010
“You’re gonna have to face it, you’re addicted to law!” Well, that’s what the song always sounded like to  me.  When you’re a hammer… (and I do try to be a hammer!) … Surely the subject of that years-ago Robert Palmer MTV cheesecake staple must be Gibson, the litigation-addled guitar company...

Nuance

Posted on November 23, 2010
Originally posted 2004-09-03 15:27:00. Republished by Blog Post PromoterNuance is a one-way street. For George Bush, it’s apparently the wrong way — so when he answers a question about the War on Terrorism by saying it’s not exactly “winnable,” which is in fact an appropriately nuanced answer, this is considered not a subtle distinction made [...

Hating someone doesn’t mean you can infringe her copyright

Posted on November 20, 2010
And that’s why the U.S. District Court issued a restraining order in the Palin vs. Gawker copyright lawsuit. Hat tip to Instapundit. Hating someone doesn’t mean you can infringe her copyright ©, .

Google threatened with sanctions over data

Posted on November 20, 2010
Originally posted 2006-09-01 14:29:07. Republished by Blog Post PromoterAFP reports: Brazilian authorities have given Google Brazil 15 days to turn over user information from websites that promote criminal activity, threatening the company with 23,000 dollars in daily fines if they do not comply...

Clever is as clever shifts fees

Posted on November 18, 2010
Richard Bergovoy: The only thing worse for a licensor than losing money when its licensee files for bankruptcy is paying attorneys? fees on top of that to stop the bleeding. Two of the most common bankruptcy proceedings that licensor creditors get involved in are: 1) hearings related to the licensee?s attempt to assume an executory license [...

New Jersey Law Journal – Hands Off Blogs

Posted on November 18, 2010
Originally posted 2007-02-05 15:27:04. Republished by Blog Post PromoterI wrote this in the New Jersey Law Journal last week: Op-ed Hands Off Blogs Mandatory disclosure of payment to bloggers runs counter to free expression By Ronald D. Coleman New Jersey Law Journal January 26, 2007 No one is free from bias of some sort or [...

Blawg Review # 126

Posted on November 18, 2010
Originally posted 2007-09-17 20:13:01. Republished by Blog Post PromoterBlawg Review continues its recent conceptual bent with Anita Campbell! Blawg Review # 126 ©, .

Likelihood of Success

Posted on November 18, 2010
Originally posted 2007-04-15 12:37:54. Republished by Blog Post PromoterThe likely blog for non-lawyers. Likelihood of Success ©, .

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