Intellectual Property Law

Welcome, Radar readers!Counterfeit Chic

Posted on March 24, 2008
Easter Monday.  The eggs have been hunted, the lamb roasted, and the heads bitten off chocolate bunnies everywhere.  Those most fanciful of couture confections, Easter bonnets, have been taken off parade and stored in hatboxes until next year.  And while the lilies still decorating many churches "toil not, neither do they spin," the rest of us have to get back to work...

Open-government advocate calls Ohio Supreme Court records panel unconstitutionalLibrary Stuff

Posted on March 23, 2008
Cleveland Plain Dealer - ?Cleveland lawyer David Marburger, of the Ohio Coalition for Open Government, said a court- appointed commission drawing up rules on what court records the public should have access to does not have the constitutional authority to do so...

Global minilinks for 2008-03-22The Electronic Frontier Foundation | Deeplinks Blogs

Posted on March 23, 2008
Antigua Says It Will Start Ignoring US CopyrightsWTO gave Antigua the right to ignore US IP rights as part of a judgement over online gambling bans. Now the small country is threatening to begin its data haven status, starting in April. France's Oliviennes Law in Final Negotiations (Google Translation)Sticking point among parties to the discussion is ISP filtering; outside, users are worried about government access to IP addresses and end-user liability for others using their network...

No, you can?t use Trademark Law to stifle critics!The Legal Satyricon

Posted on March 23, 2008
It does not entirely turn my stomach when a corporation wants to stifle a critic. Most people and companies would want the same. It does entirely turn my stomach when an attorney misuses his position as an officer of the court to try and support such efforts - this is the kind of behavior that gives our otherwise-honorable profession a dirty name...

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Amateur HourPatent Prospector

Posted on March 23, 2008
WikiPatents and the USPTO-condoned Peer to Patent projects are attempts at solutions looking for a problem. The implicit conjecture is that patent examiners are limited in their search capabilities, and a helping hand is just what they need. Nothing could be further from the truth...

Low-res transformativeness43(B)log

Posted on March 22, 2008
Quick, what's this a picture of?(If you can't tell, pull back and try again.)Adam Connelly paints pictures of pornographic images, pixellated so that it's our minds, not the paint, providing the salacious details. He says: "Drawing its subjects from the vast pool of freely-available Internet porn, my work delves into issues of public and private identity, privacy, censorship, information sharing, and information awareness...

IP Think Tank Global Week in Review - 21 March 2008Duncan Bucknell's site updates

Posted on March 22, 2008
Here is IP Think Tank?s weekly selection of top intellectual property news breaking in the blogosphere and internet. Please join the discussion by adding your comments on any of these stories, and please do let me know if you think we?ve missed something important, or if there is a source you think should be monitored...

Trademark rights, speech rightsLIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®

Posted on March 22, 2008
Public Citizen: A federal judge today upheld a Georgia man?s First Amendment right to criticize Wal-Mart?s business practices by using satire to compare its destructive effects on communities to both the Holocaust and al-Qaeda terrorists.In rejecting the company?s claim of trademark infringement, the U...

Israel Fights Back: A Purim StoryThe Patry Copyright Blog

Posted on March 21, 2008
It is fitting that on today, the Jewish holiday of Purim I discuss the recent, heroic response of the Government of Israel to the bullying by the U.S. International Intellectual Property Alliance in its submission to the United States Trade Representative regarding the U...

Friday IP Round-UpPatent Baristas

Posted on March 21, 2008
The Kentucky BioAlliance has established a fund to provide stipends for Kentucky-based biotech companies to attend the annual Biotechnology Industry Organization BIO2008 conference. Companies that are selected will be awarded a stipend to cover up to $800 in expenses associated with attending the annual BIO International Conference...

minilinks for 2008-03-20The Electronic Frontier Foundation | Deeplinks Blogs

Posted on March 21, 2008
FISA Attacks Fail to Sway CT RepresentativeRep. Joe Courtney has a good video explaining why he opposes telecom immunity, despite being attacked on the issue. Republican Opposes Telecom ImmunityA Republican candidate in North Carolina says he wants telephone companies held accountable...

Deception about defamation43(B)log

Posted on March 21, 2008
This story, College Gossip Site Under Scrutiny, reports: ?New Jersey prosecutors have subpoenaed records of JuicyCampus.com, a Web site that publishes anonymous, often malicious gossip about college students?. JuicyCampus may be violating the state?s Consumer Fraud Act by suggesting that it doesn?t allow offensive material but providing no enforcement of that rule ? and no way for users to report or dispute the material, New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram said Tuesday...

CAFC Judicial ConferencePatent Docs

Posted on March 21, 2008
By Donald Zuhn -- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will be holding a Judicial Conference entitled "The Federal Circuit: A National Court of Appeals: Addressing New Challenges" on May 15, 2008 in Washington, DC. Topics and speakers at the conference will include: ? State of the...

EPIC Sues For Access To Virginia Fusion Center RecordsJD Scoop

Posted on March 21, 2008
One of our newest contributors, the Electronic Privacy Information Center ("EPIC"), is sharing some very Scoop-worthy filings, including the complaint it filed today seeking documents about the federal government's role in an effort to limit accountability of state "Fusion Centers...

Photographs are not Derivative Works Part IIThe Patry Copyright Blog

Posted on March 20, 2008
On February 5th, I did a posting about the question of whether photographs of objects are derivative works of those objects. I have long answered that question negatively, but the post was prompted by an Iliinois case that came out the other way, Schrock v...

Plagiarism detection is fair use43(B)log

Posted on March 20, 2008
Turnitin is a plagiarism-detection service. Schools using Turnitin require students to submit papers through Turnitin?s system, which compares their papers to Turnitin?s database and, if there?s a suspicious match, generates a report for the relevant teacher...

Knockoff News 79Counterfeit Chic

Posted on March 19, 2008
A periodic collection of news about counterfeits, fakes, knockoffs, replicas, imitations, and the culture of copying in general around the globe:United South Africa: Country's designers decry lack of IP protection for emerging fashionNot tough enough: Uganda vows to strengthen legal penalties on counterfeit sellersFalse charity: His Church sends seized fakes to AfricaHard candy: M&Ms accuses Naked Cowboy of fraud in USPTO claim (See related post...

USPTO Issues Service Mark Registration for "THE TTABLOG"The TTABlog®

Posted on March 19, 2008
In case you missed it, on March 18, 2008, the USPTO issued Registration No. 3,398,417 for the mark THE TTABLOG for "An online blog featuring commentary and information in the field of trademarks; an online blog featuring commentary and information regarding decisions of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and the courts relating to trademark law...

NJ AG Anne Milgram goes after JuicyCampusIPBiz

Posted on March 19, 2008
AP reported: JuicyCampus may be violating the state's Consumer Fraud Act by suggesting that it doesn't allow offensive material but providing no enforcement of that rule ? and no way for users to report or dispute the material, New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram said Tuesday...

COMMENT, Big Boi, Dr. Seuss and the King: Expanding the Constitutional Protections for the Satirical Use of Famous Trademarks, by Aaron F. JaroffTarlton Law Library Current Trademark Literature

Posted on March 19, 2008
57 American University Law Review 641 (2008)

Copyfighters beat down Tennessee billBoing Boing

Posted on March 19, 2008
Copyfighters in Tennessee have scored a massive win, defanging a crappy, RIAA-written state bill: SB3974 is a Bill written by the RIAA, and sponsored by Knoxville Sen. Tim Burchett, that forces any institution of ?higher learning? to monitor all public university students and (according to the RIAA) expel any who access copyrighted content...

Patently-O Bits and Bytes No. 24Patent Law Blog (Patently-O)

Posted on March 19, 2008
Using Prosecution Histories: I?m going to do a survey next week on how prosecution history is used in practice, but I would like some reader input to help me create the survey. What are some examples of times when you look at the prosecution history of an application?  This survey will span prosecution, litigation, licensing, FTO, patent families and related applications, and will also touch on the cost associated with reviewing a prosecution history...

Why is Prostitution Illegal, but Pornography is Not?The Legal Satyricon

Posted on March 18, 2008
I have heard (and read) this question asked by lots of really intelligent people. See, e.g., Rogier van Bakel. Of course, Rogier?s take on it is more rooted in the ?morality? vs. liberty battle. Rogier is a five star general in the battle for common sense and liberty...

Patently-O Bits and Bytes No. 23Patent Law Blog (Patently-O)

Posted on March 18, 2008
Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights v. Craigslist, Inc., 2008 WL 681168 (7th Cir. March 14, 2008) (?Using the remarkably candid postings on Craigslist, the Lawyers? Committee can identify many targets to investigate. It can dispatch testers and collect damages from any landlord or owner who engages in discrimination...

Alleged MySpace Cyber Stalker Subpoenas Threat LevelWired: Threat Level

Posted on March 18, 2008
Alleged cyber stalking victim Amor Hilton, the teenage hostess of the Stickam show Bare Naked. Image: Hilton's MySpace profile Jeffrey Weinberg, the convicted hacker accused of trying to ransom an internet pin-up girl's MySpace account for phone sex, thinks this humble blog may hold the key to his freedom, judging from the subpoena his public defender just sent to Wired's corporate overlords...

Turnitin.com Lawsuit Yields Rulings on Browsewrap Contracts, Fair Use of Copyrighted ExpressionTechLaw

Posted on March 18, 2008
An opinion released a few days ago in the Turnitin.com lawsuit, A.V. v. iParadigms, No. 07-293 (E.D. Va., March 11, 2008), took up several issues of interest to cyberlaw attorneys. The court (1) enforced a clickwrap agreement, (2) declined to enforce terms of use that were viewable by clicking on a hyperlink at the bottom of a Web page, and (3) held that Turnitin...

Federal District Court docket info for free?Ernie The Attorney

Posted on March 18, 2008
Thanks to my friend Al Robert for pointing this out. Justia has a free online database of all federal docket information from Jan 1, 2004 to the present. The information is sparse, but at least you can see all of the recent cases filed related to a certain party...

Google?s Thin-Skinned LawyersBits

Posted on March 18, 2008
Google bans sites that earn money from its AdSense network from taking action that "reflects poorly on Google or otherwise disparages or devalues Google's reputation or goodwill." It says it isn't trying to stifle criticism, but it has the right to.

Obama Fan Strikes OutCounterfeit Chic

Posted on March 18, 2008
He built it, and they came.  Now the Obama supporter who developed a line of t-shirts based on baseball team logos has been forced to dismantle his website, ObamaofDreams.com, at the objection of Major League Baseball.  While typefaces themselves are not protected by copyright, their use is frequently an essential trademark element...

Anonymous Bloggers Carry on Tradition of the Federalist PapersChicago IP Litigation Blog

Posted on March 17, 2008
There has been a lot of coverage of Troll Tracker's recently disclosed identity.* Troll Tracker ended his anonymity a few weeks ago and now faces a libel law suit along with his employer, Cisco, based upon statements he made about a case involving Cisco -- this is one of the many reasons I do not write about cases that my firm or I are involved in...

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