Intellectual Property Law

Overlawyered, just-right-Blawg-Reviewed

Posted on January 20, 2011
Originally posted 2009-07-13 10:14:07. Republished by Blog Post PromoterWalter Olson hosts this week’s Blawg Review: Welcome to Blawg Review #220, rounding up some highlights of the past week from around the legal blogosphere. It?s my second time hosting it here at Overlawyered, a blog that as its name implies maintains a certain critical distance from [...

Legal in Phoenix, liable in Central Islip

Posted on January 20, 2011
Originally posted 2009-01-21 18:24:42. Republished by Blog Post PromoterUPDATE: All the below is still very relevant, very important and very significant — except as to the final judgment, which has been vacated by consent and replaced with this Agreed Injunction and Order...

On the tweet where you live

Posted on January 17, 2011
Here are some topical highlights of the wisdom I have distributed in the last month or so to the madding crowd following me down my street via Twitter @roncoleman: @ericgoldman: SEO/web design consultant faces TM liability for “copycat” e-commerce site @collenip: The Supreme Court deadlocked 4 to 4 in Omega v...

The Copyright Act: It’s a law, dude

Posted on January 17, 2011
Originally posted 2008-08-28 03:09:44. Republished by Blog Post PromoterWe don’t mince words at LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION® regarding the misuse of copyright and trademark, but we’re having trouble finding anything wrong with this at-first-blush shocking story from the Reuters “news agency”: Federal officials on Wednesday arrested a man on suspicion of violating copyright laws for placing [...

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Manchester Cathedral, you’re driving me crazy

Posted on January 17, 2011
Originally posted 2007-06-14 11:42:55. Republished by Blog Post PromoterManchester Cathedral, Winchester Cathedral – same thing. We’ve written in the past — well, not us, there is only just me here; sorry — about the dubious concept of trademark rights in building exteriors...

The entrepreneurship of trademark bullying

Posted on January 12, 2011
I figured I must have written somewhere about that PTO trademark bullying thing — or if I didn’t, I am sure I linked to someone who did — well, I thought I did. But finally, I really did.  And I was reminded of it when I read a press release including this interesting comment from [...

Getting ‘em in

Posted on January 12, 2011
Originally posted 2006-06-26 21:18:16. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Bob Cox, citing a renewed burst of commitment to his Media Bloggers Association, is shutting down The National Debate. His new blog is Words In Edgewise, which is mostly about the MBA...

Corporations and blogging seminar — U. of Philadelphia

Posted on January 12, 2011
Originally posted 2006-12-07 11:34:34. Republished by Blog Post PromoterFox Rothschild partner and my former college-hijinx-mate Bob Clothier sends along news of this event at Philadelphia University. If you’re anywhere near Philly you should consider attending, and you may want to urge clients (it’s really geared to non-lawyers) to look into it as well...

SUPER HERO® my foot

Posted on January 12, 2011
Originally posted 2006-03-27 16:08:22. Republished by Blog Post PromoterUPDATE: Our NPR interview on this topic was on NPR’s “All Things Considered” just before 6 tonight. We blogged on this topic last week. Today the LA Times weighs in, writing, confusingly: TICKETS TO THE California Science Center’s latest exhibit, “Marvel Super Heroes Science Exhibition,” sell for [...

Censorship at INTA?

Posted on January 10, 2011
In a post from last Friday, Lara Pearson takes on what she calls “Censorship at INTA .”* It’s about the big-IP redoubt’s plan to remove the justly famous “INTA List,” the TM Topics email discussion group to behind a slick “social-networking” wall of exclusivity for INTA members only...

SCOTUS: Likelihood of Confusion Bows to Fair Use

Posted on January 10, 2011
Originally posted 2005-01-03 20:35:00. Republished by Blog Post Promoter(HEADLINE UPDATED) Tilt of the chapeau to law student Joe Gratz’s blog for reporting this decision from the U.S. Supreme Court that came down a month ago today. Here’s Joe’s summary and an excerpt from KP Permanent Make-Up, Inc...

Other people’s money

Posted on January 10, 2011
Originally posted 2008-01-08 15:43:34. Republished by Blog Post PromoterWSJ.com’s Law Blog reports about the seven-figure effect in the Central District of California for a one-minute-late filing: A judgment in favor of [Morrison & Foster's] client was entered on Sept...

District of New Jersey: Initial interest, other confusion okay in search terms claim

Posted on January 10, 2011
Originally posted 2006-07-19 20:45:27. Republished by Blog Post PromoterJust when the Southern District of New York was hinting that it might be safe to go back in the water and stop worrying about “initial interest confusion,” a friend in a position to care a lot about the result passes along the just-out decision in 800-JR [...

Trademark blogoids

Posted on January 10, 2011
Originally posted 2009-05-19 01:31:51. Republished by Blog Post PromoterBlogoids?  Tablogs?  It could happen!  After all, look how we got the word “tabloid.”  Did you ever think about what an odd name that is for a newspaper that’s guilty of no more than being immensely simpler to read than obsolescing dinosaurs such as “broadsheets”? Well, yes, [...

Ben Stein trips over IP

Posted on January 10, 2011
Originally posted 2008-04-18 11:58:14. Republished by Blog Post PromoterWalter Olson: With all his lawyer chums from Milberg-witness days, you’d think Ben Stein could have saved the makers of his creationist movie from stumbling into textbook IP infringements [Myers, again, WSJ law blog]...

About that SLAPP thing

Posted on January 10, 2011
Originally posted 2010-03-17 18:26:28. Republished by Blog Post Promoter A number of law bloggers have posted recently (as noted by Colin Samuels at the link referred to in my previous post) in support of a federal statute to deal with the problem of lawsuits known as “strategic lawsuits against public participation”–SLAPP suits...

Is trademark bullying okay if you’re on the side of the angels?

Posted on January 04, 2011
I’ve never thought so. Neirhter does Techdirt‘s Mike Masnick — not surprisingly — concerning the tactics employed by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure operation and its assertion of ownership over the color pink. Is trademark bullying okay if you’re on the side of the angels? ©, .

Is Google a utility?

Posted on January 04, 2011
Originally posted 2006-07-02 23:24:35. Republished by Blog Post Promoter We wrote about the Kinderstart lawsuit against Google, claiming an unfairly depressed Google search rank, last March. There have been further, very interesting, developments, exemplified by this this colloquy reported by Dawn Kawamoto: David Kramer, a Wilson Sonsini attorney also representing Google, said the search giant’s [...

Likelihood of somniloquy

Posted on January 04, 2011
Originally posted 2008-09-04 02:15:12. Republished by Blog Post PromoterThe New York Times: ?Trademark is the sleeping giant of intellectual property,? said Paul Goldstein, a professor at the Stanford law school. Who’s sleeping?  No one sleeps around here, believe me...

Two years ago in CONFUSION: Going underground

Posted on January 04, 2011
Originally posted 2009-08-11 14:37:40. Republished by Blog Post Promoter This picture, from two years ago this month, links to one of the most popular blog posts on LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®.  It’s probably linked to numerous health risks as well, but you buys your sandwich, you takes your chances — and your cholesterol, your calories …...

Best of 2010: Dough, a dear

Posted on December 31, 2010
First posted August 11, 2010. The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man wreaked some havoc in his time, but who would have thought that his inspiration — the Pillsbury Doughboy — would act the part of a veritable Gozer the Destroyer himself, at the expense of a funky new-age bakery? A few weeks ago, the founder of a [...

Best of 2010: Sealed with a fist

Posted on December 31, 2010
First posted August 4, 2010. I kvetch a lot about the mania for dubious “IP enforcement” by government agencies such as New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority, which really should both know better and which have superior options for utilization of public resources...

Blawg Review

Posted on December 31, 2010
Originally posted 2006-05-21 23:27:30. Republished by Blog Post Promoter It’s all a big game, right?! Check out this week’s Blawg Review! Blawg Review ©, .

Update: No Go for Shmoe’s Ho’s

Posted on December 31, 2010
Originally posted 2005-06-24 09:38:11. Republished by Blog Post PromoterIn January we blogged about the trademark dustup concerning the high-class Mustang gentlemen’s establishment. Now we learn that, as expected, Lance Gilman bought the ranch but not the good will...

How many points is INFRINGEMENT?

Posted on December 31, 2010
Originally posted 2008-07-27 16:19:12. Republished by Blog Post PromoterWe had been wondering who had the “Z.” Now the other tile drops, and probably right onto a triple word score — Hasbro, owner of the SCRABBLE trademark, has sued Scrabulous (complaint here; exhibits here): The general manager for digital media and gaming at Hasbro said yesterday [...

No more free ride

Posted on December 31, 2010
Originally posted 2007-11-06 12:53:29. Republished by Blog Post PromoterAttributor is a new program that online publishers can and do use to trace their verbal content across the Internet and see who is using how much of their stuff without paying or attributing...

Copyright in cease and desist letters? Not quite.

Posted on December 31, 2010
Originally posted 2008-01-26 19:57:36. Republished by Blog Post PromoterA law firm’s press release says: The US District Court for the District of Idaho has found that copyright law protects a lawyer demand letter posted online by the recipient (Case No...

Smokin’!

Posted on December 31, 2010
Originally posted 2009-01-28 06:00:26. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Here’s a whole blog dedicated to “Cigar Law” — quite a bit of which is trademark. Smokin’! ©, .

Absolutely not a Verizon Dealer

Posted on December 31, 2010
Originally posted 2007-10-09 19:43:35. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Absolutely not a Verizon Dealer Originally uploaded by Ron Coleman I call this “shadow ghost branding,” and there’s a lot of it around. A company is formerly affiliated with a well-known brand, typically as a franchisee, and then the relationship is severed...

I rate! And I float!

Posted on December 31, 2010
Originally posted 2007-01-12 10:36:59. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Got my genuine, secondary – meaning – generating TTABlog Floating Key Chain in the mail yesterday — just for being me! I knew I’d float to the top in this profession eventually...

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