Intellectual Property Law

?No Infringement Intended?

Posted on December 08, 2009
I have noticed recently while playing around on YouTube and Google Video seeking exam question fodder that many fans of popular movies and TV shows who make mash-up videos of material from the shows post a notice at the beginning or end of their video saying “no copyright infringement intended”...

Are T.V. Programs Killer Apps?

Posted on December 07, 2009
Networks. In my youth, the term was most familiar to me as the word for large, national television stations. NBC was at the bottom of a small heap in the late 1970s. If I recall correctly, Johnny Carson and the Tonight Show supported most of the network in general...

Twilight/Copyright

Posted on December 05, 2009
In my ongoing attempt to blog exclusively about IP issues related to Stephenie Meyer and the Twilight franchise, here’s a story I just picked up from CNN online.  A 22 year old woman from Chicago faces 3 years in prison for taping 2-3 minutes of the recently released Twilight movie (New Moon) at a birthday [...

Trudy was murdered by an evil male law professor.

Posted on December 04, 2009
If you don’t know what I am talking about, it’s your loss. A cautionary tale, might I add. No Tags

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Matt Lauer and Celebrity ?Outing?

Posted on December 03, 2009
Cross posted from The Faculty Lounge. So while enjoying the guilty pleasure of watching the Today show at a hotel room yesterday morning, I – along with the rest of the world – heard the public declaration from favorite Family Ties mom, Meredith Baxter, that she is now officially coming out as a lesbian...

How To Lose Yourself (Or Not) in 30 Days: Wired?s Identity Loss Experiment

Posted on December 02, 2009
Wired magazine ran an interesting competition starting on August 13. Writer Evan Ratliff who had written about how people disappear tried to disappear from the world and everyone he knew while Wired encouraged and helped people try and find him. The winner would receive $5,000...

Grant McCracken, author of The Chief Culture Officer, on ?Hard law, soft law and culture in the court room?

Posted on December 01, 2009

Blue in Boise

Posted on December 01, 2009
The Boise State Broncos football team is unbeaten this year and ranked in the top 10.  But the university scored off the field the other day:  Broncos 1, the rest of the sporting world zero. What’s the big win?  Boise State received a trademark registration for the color blue in connection with “Entertainment services, namely, the [...

Exploding Foodstuffs With Annoying But Relevant Soundtrack

Posted on December 01, 2009
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In-n-Out Heads East

Posted on December 01, 2009
Via Gordon Smith, I learned the other day that In-n-Out, the California-based burger chain known as much for its cult status among its fans as for the quality of its food, is expanding into Utah.  In-n-Out started in Southern California — source of its distinctive palm-tree silhouette — and in the 90s expanded to Northern [...

Defamatory Tweeting

Posted on November 30, 2009
Cross posted from The Faculty Lounge. I was asked for comment today about defamation and Twitter and, in particular, whether the laws of defamation should apply differently in this new medium.  Over the last year or so, there have been a number of cases involving defamation via Twitter, including a high profile situation involving Courtney Love [...

A Scottish brewery, BrewDog of Fraserburgh, has launched Tactical Nuclear Penguin Beer, with a 32% alcohol content.

Posted on November 28, 2009
Via the BBC News: BrewDog was previously branded irresponsible for an 18.2% beer called Tokyo, which it then followed with a low alcohol beer called Nanny State. Managing director James Watt said a limited supply of Tactical Nuclear Penguin would be sold for £30 each...

From 3AM on Wednesday November 25, 2009, until 3AM the following day (US east coast time), WikiLeaks released half a million US national text pager intercepts. The intercepts cover a 24 hour period surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

Posted on November 27, 2009
Overview page here. Messages here. It will be interesting to see what (if any) important new information is disclosed. No Tags

Play and Protest

Posted on November 25, 2009
Earlier this month I had a great time at the conference “The Internet as Playground and Factory.” I focused on the “factory” presentations, and I’ve had a bit of trouble digesting the “play” side of the conference (such as the Bureau of Workplace Interruptions)...

New Blog About Innovation?

Posted on September 30, 2009
It’s called “There, I Fixed It: Epic Kludges and Jury Rigs” No Tags

?Forrest Gump in One Minute, in One Take?

Posted on September 29, 2009
See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor. No Tags

?Ignoring RIAA lawsuits cheaper than going to trial?

Posted on September 29, 2009
From Ars Technica: … Jammie Thomas-Rasset and Joel Tenenbaum captured the nation’s attention when they were defendants in the RIAA’s first two trials against accused online infringers. But here’s the mind-warping reality: both defendants would have been far better off monetarily if they had simply ignored the complaint altogether and failed to show up in court...

More on Facebook and the Perils of User Generated Content

Posted on September 28, 2009
Cross posted from Faculty Lounge: According to CNN, the U.S. Secret Service asked Facebook to suspend the use of an application that allows users to create online polls when someone created a poll asking whether the president should be killed.  The possible answers were “yes”, “no”, “maybe”, and “if he cuts my healthcare”...

Fun with Movie Reviews

Posted on September 25, 2009
A couple of weeks ago I noticed in an advertisement for the movie “Love Happens” a tag line that read:  “Jennifer Aniston at her most engaging.”  Of course, having read the review from which it was taken, I realized that the full quote in context said something like:  “Even Jennifer Aniston at her most engaging [...

Missing a Netflix DVD?

Posted on September 22, 2009
Massachusetts postal worker admits to stealing 30,000 DVDs. A former postal service employee has pleaded guilty to stealing more than 30,000 DVDs that moved through a western Massachusetts post office. Myles Weathers, formerly of Springfield, took DVDs that were mailed by Netflix to customers for a year [...

Google Gains Ground on Adwords in EU

Posted on September 22, 2009
I don’t know how many people saw this, and I haven’t read the full opinion yet, but yesterday an Advocate-General advising a French court opined that Google’s adwords program didn’t violate trademark law in the E.U.  There is a media story here (thanks to Roberto Colon for passing this on to me)...

GPS

Posted on September 22, 2009
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A Termination Notice Is Not A Lawsuit, But At Least One Journalist Is Really Confused

Posted on September 22, 2009
From here, an article entitled: Kirby Estate Sues Marvel - Notices of copyright termination sent to film studios. The estate of comic book icon Jack Kirby has filed a copyright lawsuit against Marvel Entertainment, challenging the company’s — and its new potential corporate parent, Disney’s — long-term rights to certain characters...

Using data from the social network Facebook, MIT students find that just by looking at a person?s online friends, they could predict whether someone is homosexual.

Posted on September 21, 2009
From the NYT: … The idea behind the MIT work, done in 2007, is as old as the adage that birds of a feather flock together. For years, sociologists have known of the ?homophily principle? - the tendency for similar people to group together. People of one race tend to have spouses, confidants, and friends of [...

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski?s Speech

Posted on September 21, 2009
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s recent remarks at the Brookings Institution — ?Preserving a Free and Open Internet: A Platform for Innovation, Opportunity, and Prosperity? — call for the FCC to adopt network neutrality rules. It is a good speech — the webcast is here...

Measuring the DoJ Response to the GBS Settlement

Posted on September 21, 2009
Pam Samuelson’s latest HuffPo column measures the Department of Justice response to the proposed Google Book Search settlement. All commentators, including Pam and Randy Picker (in his post below) note that the settlement is being revised (James Grimmelmann speculates that the negotiations are “frantic”)...

DOJ Filing in Google Book Search

Posted on September 19, 2009
Let me start by saying thanks to Mike for the invitation to blog here. I will probably cross-post some posts here and at the Chicago Faculty blog. This is a longish post and runs the risk of violating some filter Mike has undoubtedly set about the number of self-cites permitted in a post...

A Seller of Online Adult Novelties Brought Federal Copyright and Trademark Infringement Claims Alleging: ?Linden looks the other way, while virtual residents rip off the SexGen product line, which includes specially programmed beds, rugs, sofas and even a coffin that enable consenting avatars to engage in virtual sex acts.?

Posted on September 18, 2009
Story here. Sample SexGen commodified virtual monster genitalia below. Might not be safe for work, apologies if this post got you fired. No Tags

Alum Suing NYU for Stealing Her Bobcat Drawing

Posted on September 18, 2009
From the NY Daily News: A freelance artist is suing New York University, saying her alma mater’s famous bobcat mascot is really just a copycat. Ariel Fleurimond says the mascot NYU unveiled in 2008 and began plastering on apparel, memorabilia, posters, its Web site and even the gymnasium floor is a design she created at the request [...

Facebook Effrontery

Posted on September 18, 2009
Did anyone see this report from CNET News about a guy who apparently, while robbing a house, logged in to the homeowner’s computer to check his Facebook page?  It links to another story about a guy who targets people checking their Facebook pages in Starbucks as a good place to steal laptops...

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