A trademark owner must protect its brand by stopping confusingly similar uses of its trademark whenever possible. Nike and Under Armour are direct competitors so confusion among sportswear buyers confronted with a knock-off brand is likely. Or, maybe the consumers enjoy the grudge match and aren’t confused. But ignore the threat at your peril. E.Scott Johnson was quoted (...) [Read More]
Category Archives: Uncategorized
A Divided Court on Divided Patent Infringement
September 25, 2012
The Federal Circuit’s recently issued decision in the cases of Akamai Technologies, Inc. v. Limelight Networks, Inc. and McKesson Technologies, Inc. v. Epic Systems Corp. received less attention than its importance might have warranted, perhaps because Apple’s win over Samsung in the patent litigation between the Smartphone giants occurred at about the same time and (...) [Read More]
Fair use? Remixing campaign videos and avoiding copyright trolls
July 17, 2012
When faced with a witty attack ad, nothing is faster and more effective than responding with remixed campaign video. But don’t forget the details. In the heat of the remix battle, copyright infringement seems the least of your worries but a well planned DMCA take-down notice from a copyright owner can shut your opponent’s remix (...) [Read More]
Trademark protection under the Madrid Protocol gains a foothold in South America
June 19, 2012
Last year I posted about how even small and midsized companies can use the Madrid system to extend protection of their U.S. trademark registrations overseas. To recap, the Madrid System allows trademark owners to file a single application seeking an International Registration with the World Intellectual Property Organization (“WIPO”) and then enables registrants to designate (...) [Read More]
Are You Smarter Than A First Year IP Law Student?
April 17, 2012
The US Patent and Trademark Office wants to know. In conjunction with the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, the USPTO is offering an online “Intellectual Property Awareness Assessment”, e.g., a pop-quiz designed to test your IP acumen. http://www.uspto.gov/inventors/assessment/. The quiz is 62 questions long, takes 20-30 minutes, and covers several basic IP categories: • (...) [Read More]
Stalking Apps: Creepy or Invasive? Understanding Social Media Data Collection is Key
April 6, 2012
Creepy!?? Is that how consumers would describe your online advertising? Maybe not, but regulators are clearly creeped-out by the amount of consumer data collected online and the ability of data aggregated to collect or discern information that many would consider private. Over the past weeks and months, several privacy stakeholders have issued guidance for best (...) [Read More]
Copyright Troll Righthaven Appeal Prompts Important Fair Use Question
January 11, 2012
Righthaven earned its troll status by having a business plan that entails acquiring enough rights in copyright-protected material to allow it to sue unwary copyright infringers. A California court recently ruled that one such defendant’s use of a Las Vegas Review-Journal article was fair use. Righthaven appealed to the 9th Circuit. Among the questions the (...) [Read More]
Healthcare CEO’s Privacy is Invaded by Faux Facebook Page the Old Fashioned Way
December 21, 2011
I saw a tweet today that a post on the FierceHealthcare blog overstated the privacy and security issues implicated by a faux Facebook page targeting a healthcare company CEO, as reported in this Murray (KY) Ledger article. While I see his (David Harlow’s) point that it’s not apparently a HIPPA or HIT privacy breach, it is instead, old (...) [Read More]
Arts Community Loses a Visionary Leader
December 9, 2011
On December 2, hundreds of artists, leaders of arts organization, arts advocates, patrons and friends gathered at the Baltimore Museum of Art to celebrate the amazing life of Nancy Haragan, whose unforgettable and irreplaceable performances on this planet ended too soon on November 27th. I first worked with Nancy when MICA President, Fred Lazarus, introduced (...) [Read More]
In the Matter of Facebook: FTC Forces Privacy Fix
November 29, 2011
Facebook settled with the FTC today over its chameleon-like privacy policy reports Gizmodo, putting the user into the driver’s seat for privacy settings. No more Big-Daddy-Knows-Best privacy changes. FTC announced that given the long history of Facebook privacy changes and broken promises, it issued an order that Facebook be barred from making misrepresentations about the privacy of user’s (...) [Read More]
