Category:
Intellectual Property
Bar the Czar from IP Avatar
What a shock. Lobbyists always get all of the best legislation through. A House committee passed proposed legislation last week, the “Pro IP Act,” which would increase the penalties for illegally copying and distributing movies and music. The bill would also create a White House-level position termed an “Intellectual Property Czar.” And therein lies one of the […]
Tagged attorney general, copyright, Department of Justice, infringement, proposed legislation
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Transforming Obama
When I first heard about the Associated Press (“AP”) accusing Shepard Fairey, the artist who created the ubiquitous red and blue Obama poster emblazened with the word “HOPE,” for copyright infringement, the first thing I thought of was “fair use,” most notably the concept called “transformative use.” The AP alleged that Fairey infringed its photograph of Obama when he developed […]
Tagged acuff-rose, campbell, cease and desist, copyright, declaratory judgment, fair use, infringement, lawsuit, litigation, Massachusetts, photograph, Shephard Fairey, technology attorney, transformative use
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Kindling a Derivative Works Controversy
When I heard the Author’s Guild claim that Amazon’s new Kindle 2 text-to-speech feature violated an author’s copyright, all I could first think of was . . . good grief. And being a lawyer with a good stable of Yiddish terms, the phrases “oy vey” and “meshugenah” came to mind also. This nifty feature allows the Kindle to read the e-book’s […]
Tagged Amazon.com, contracts, copyright, derivative works, fair use, fixation, infringement, Kindle, licensing, litigation, originality, sound recording, translation
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Billion and Billions Served . . . Unfortunately
Sigh. Although I’m not surprised–especially given this pernicious and false belief that if it’s on the internet then it must be free–it’s been estimated that 43 sites which engage in digital piracy account for about 21 billion visits per year. That’s roughly 3 times the current population of the Earth. As an intellectual property attorney, I always […]
Tagged copyright, counterfeit, crime, infringement, Internet, piracy, trademark
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APPsolutely Fun to Watch
I love it when tech giants battle over stuff, particularly in the legal arena. When you have two parties with virtually unlimited resources and an unfettered willingness to spend money on lawyers, it makes for interesting reading … and hopefully for more interesting law at some point down the line. We don’t always have such excitement […]
Tagged advertising, Apple, apps, brand management, consumer protection, infringement, Internet, lawsuit, Microsoft, trademark, TTAB
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Race for the Cure Between Public Relations and Trademark Law
Last summer, when I read about the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s aggressive enforcement efforts against other charities to protect its “FOR THE CURE” trademark used in breast cancer research, I thought back then that it could be problematic for the company. Not necessarily from a legal perspective, but from a public relations one. And that’s extremely important […]
Tagged brand management, cease and desist, Internet, litigation, trademark
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