Intellectual Property Law

Fashionably litigious

Posted on June 22, 2009
Miss Trials is a new blog, or sub-blog or something (I can’t make heads or tails of the navigation) on a site called Halogen Life.  It’s written by Kelly Taylor — “a reformed politico, fashion writer and aspiring lead counsel for a major house of style...

No endorsement here

Posted on June 22, 2009
The Media Bloggers Association president, Bob Cox, is all over the story regarding the Federal Trade Commission’s brand new Guides on Endorsements and Testimonials, which, as Bob explains, will certainly affect bloggers.  In fact, one of the examples given of a testimonial in the proposed revisions, found here, is of a product review written by [...

Don’t bother, they’re here

Posted on June 19, 2009
President Obama is suffering from the right-of-publicity blues again.  And now maybe we understand why he wants an intellectual property counterfeiting expert on the Supreme Court — this could rise to the level of an international incident already, Jack! A blog called Cloned In China explains it all in (ironic as it is to say) inimitable [...

“Infinity Dollars” — IP damages and the jury, Part 2

Posted on June 19, 2009
(Part 1 is here.) So.  In light of the decision in the Thomas-Rasset case, which I first rounded up in part 1 of this first-ever two-part LIKELIHOOD odyssey,  does a jury of supposedly ordinary and sensible people becomes twelve angry persons and so profoundly abandon common sense in IP cases (even if it the whole thing [...

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“Infinity Dollars” — IP damages and the jury, Part 1

Posted on June 19, 2009
A lot of people, including judges, lawyers and civilians, don’t seem to really understand what statutory damages are all about.  They are not supposed to be a windfall (discussed more here).  But just tell that to the jury that awarded “infinity dollars” — practically — to the Lords of Music for what was indeed knowing [...

No master of that domain

Posted on June 18, 2009
Evan Brown reports on a California appellate case holding that, in that state at least, a domain name is not something a judgment creditor can have “turned over” as an asset of the debtor: The provision in California law allowing turnover of property limits itself to tangible property that can be ?levied upon by taking it [...

People Endlessly Troubling All

Posted on June 15, 2009
The Canadian Trademark Blog reports that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the extremist anti-protein group, has launched a new ?spoof? website in its stated bid to convince the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) that it should help in the campaign to end the Canadian seal hunt...

Trademark doomsday on Facebook

Posted on June 12, 2009
TechLaw is one of the gazillion places reporting on what Facebook is allowing trademark owners –owners of registered trademark , that is — to do in order to prevent their marks from being squatted when, at the stroke of midnight Friday night Eastern time, the Great Facebook Vanity URL Land Rush begins...

And Derek Jeter’s pageload times are preposterously slow

Posted on June 10, 2009
Venkat Balasubramani hits one square over the firewall and argues that Tony La Russa’s legal claims against Twitter look tenuous. I used to think I was a little bit on top of things and stuff, but, really, I just don’t know.  Did I ever foresee the intersection of the concepts embracing both Tony LaRussa and Twitter?  [...

Redskins redux

Posted on June 09, 2009
I didn’t have a chance to mention that last month, the order denying the legal challenge to the Washington Redskin’s use of its trademark American Indian logo was upheld. Now I have a chance! And do the unhappy Indians have a chance?  They think they do.

Rewriting his story?

Posted on June 08, 2009
Slashdot: The_Pey writes “Recently, an application was pulled from the Apple App Store because of its name. The game in question, Edge, reportedly infringes on the the trademark rights of Tim Langdell to the name Edge. The unfortunate aspect to this whole affair is that Tim is broadly enforcing rights to the name, whether or not [...

Berry disappointing

Posted on June 03, 2009
Walter Olson: ?Plaintiff did not explain why she could not reasonably have figured this out at any point during the four years she alleged she bought Cap?n Crunch with Crunchberries in reliance on defendant?s fraud.? Figured out … what?  You have to click the link to find out...

Sotomayor — one of us?

Posted on June 02, 2009
There’s been a lot of talk about U.S. Circuit Court Judge Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court by President Obama in the context his controversial emphasis on “empathy” as a desirable quality in a judicial nominee.  Well, check out this empathetic note from  Counterfeit Chic: Counterfeit Chic knew that Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court [...

Rawhide!

Posted on June 01, 2009
Remember the lawsuit pitting the Naked Cowboy against the Mars candy people? Well, the Cowboy rides again — out in the direction of that sunset into which he rode (bareback), in fact, filing suit against Clear Channel, alleging that one of their radio stations misappropriated his mark...

Likelihood of Revelation

Posted on May 28, 2009
I will be off the grid due to the two-day observance of the Jewish festival of Shavuoth, the celebration of the Revelation that made the Jews the “chosen nation,” starting tonight through Saturday night. I’ll be back next week, and will continue to reveal all.

Channeling Mr. Rogers

Posted on May 27, 2009
“I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you,” crooned Mr. Rogers for all those afternoons. Well, evidentially it’s mutual, and then some.  Michael Kinsell, it seems, as always wanted to be a neighbor, just like — I mean, just like — Mr...

TTAB to dirty trademark applicant: “Go.”

Posted on May 26, 2009
We see again that the ill-defined “scandalous” criterion for rejecting trademark registration applications — and not merely those involving hot-button ethnic slurs — lives, as John Welch reports (not safe for work, and, really, for home either — why not just read my nice version right here?): In the Board’s latest Section 2(a) rulings, Applicant RK [...

Towel Day, see?

Posted on May 25, 2009
Cyberlaw Central has Blawg Review #213.  The theme is “Towel Day.” You have to be there, I guess.  With a towel.

Tanked?

Posted on May 24, 2009
Cartier sued Apple last week, and before I had a chance to figure it out, they either un-sued them or announced that they were about to withdraw the complaint, which isn’t even available yet on the Southern District of New York’s PACER system...

No fan of DANGO

Posted on May 22, 2009
Connie Loizos wrote a piece with the kind of headline just guaranteed to get a link from this blog:  Trademark Battle Reaches Height of Ridiculousness: As TechFlash reports, seven-year-old Jobdango, a Portland-based jobs site, suddenly wants three-year-old search engine startup Zoodango to find a new name after it successfully pressured another startup, Goddango, to drop its [...

Blawg Review

Posted on May 20, 2009
Tamera Bennet brings us Blawg Review #212.  Two-one-two — that’s the ancient and venerable New York City (now, only Manhattan) area code.  Tamera is in Dallas, though.  But I always said Texas was the New York of the South, so, there you go...

A shanda all around

Posted on May 20, 2009
We reported the Woody Allen right-o-publicity lawsuit arising from “that billboard” when it was filed April. This billboard: Yeah, oy.  And now, it’s settled, for $5 million.  That’s not chopped liver, especially when you consider that it’s more than the lifetime gross of five of his last ten movies...

Trademark blogoids

Posted on May 19, 2009
Blogoids?  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, it is odd...

Seattle. Trademark lawyers.

Posted on May 19, 2009
At Mike Atkin’s place in Seattle, all kinds of law bloggers, but mostly trademark ones, got together tonight in honor of all being rained on in the same place for the annual INTA Festival of Expense Accounts. Here are two of them.  Yes, that’s Randazza on the right (Marc, Marco, whatever) — not in the picture, [...

Google adwords hell breaks loose. Yay!

Posted on May 14, 2009
The Google / ad words / trademarks story, long a mainstay of LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®, may end up needing a blog of its own, so don’t be surprised if you see less and less coverage of it here.  (I just resent stories that outgrow me.)  We’re almost there...

Enabling defeat

Posted on May 13, 2009
Michael Hall talks about the trademark application that said too much: [Imagine a]n examining attorney has just pulled a new application. It?s a safe bet that one of the very first things he or she will do is visit the applicant?s website to see whether and how the applicant is using the applied-for mark...

McBummer

Posted on May 11, 2009
I’ve written before about the odd cultural juxtaposition of McDonald’s and the Muslim world.  It turns out I don’t know the half of it!  Now McDonald’s has lost its effort to extend its monopoly of “Mc”-family trademarks in Malaysia, which bucked the colonialist-lackey trend of extending American-style “McFamily Values” to the rest of the globe: The [...

Branded for life

Posted on May 08, 2009
BrandlandUSA Blog: Here are our Top 19 stories so far this year. More people are concerned with the ugliness of the new Kraft logo than anything else. Really?  More than the Tropicana debacle?

Keeping it real — the ultimate use in commerce

Posted on May 07, 2009
The 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, but which arguably may have trademark significance...

Vo-do-de-o

Posted on May 06, 2009
The Trademark Blog reports on the dispute between ICED VOVO v ICED DOUGH VO. The song is here.  Just try to stay in your seat!

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