Strengthening Commercial Identity: Trademarks and Small Businesses
By Paul Beattie | Oct 05, 2012
Somewhere in the suburbs of Seattle, never mind where exactly, there is a little apocryphal, bakery called FRIAR ANGELINO’S. It makes the best bread imaginable – a circle of sourdough, with a flaky outer crust and a warm, spongy interior. Above the entrance is an old weather-beaten sign depicting a rotund, smiling monk, with a bottle of wine in one hand and a loaf of bread in the other. Not long ago, an investor approached the owner. A deal was struck, and now FRIAR ANGELINO’S bakery franchises are springing up throughout the region. The loaves of bread have also begun appearing in supermarkets, wrapped in simple brown paper bearing the bakery’s trademark: the name FRIAR ANGELINO’S and a picture of a fat, smiling monk.
Skee-Ball accuses Brewskee-Ball of cheating (ala trademark infringement)
By Rimon Admin | Jan 06, 2012
Did you know SKEE-BALL’s a trademark? And an infringed trademark at that? Well, maybe.
You remember Skee-Ball, don’t you? The game in which you roll a ball up a table hoping to do so with just enough force so that it hits the ridge at the end of the table and bounces up into the smallest of holes, which awards the most prize tickets. Small amounts of prize tickets could be redeemed for plastic trinkets, while larger amounts could buy you goodies like stuffed animals or even TVs and VCRs.
Who Owns The Copyright In Work Created By A Contractor? A Trap For The Unwary
By Rimon Admin | Dec 29, 2011
It’s really basic: ownership of the copyright in work a business pays for can often be critical for successful commercialization of that work. Unfortunately, the U.S. Copyright Act contains arcane provisions that will often produce a counterintuitive result – leaving full copyright ownership with the contractor. How could this possibly be??
Righthaven domain name auction
By Rimon Admin | Dec 28, 2011
The Righthaven Domain Name auction began today (Monday, December 26, 2011) and will end at 3:15 p.m. EST on Friday, January 6, 2012.
Stop Online Piracy Act: fair play or a stacked deck?
By Rimon Admin | Dec 22, 2011
Currently under debate in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Stop Online Piracy Act (“SOPA”) would provide the Attorney General and copyright holders with tools to combat copyright infringement and trafficking of counterfeit goods. Whether the bill goes too far, though, is under heavy scrutiny. Opponents to SOPA, including Internet giants such as Google and Facebook, worry that the bill will result in Internet censorship akin to China’s Internet firewall. Others, including the RIAA and MPAA, believe it is necessary to protect U.S. intellectual property.
Hey, Chick-fil-A: Eat (More) Crow! This is not Trademark Infringement.
By Rimon Admin | Nov 29, 2011
Do you imagine crow tastes good with chicken? Maybe we should ask the legal eagles representing Chick-fil-A, whom I suspect now have first-hand knowledge of the answer to that question.
Domain Name Switch Costs More Than Banks Bargained For
By Rimon Admin | Nov 14, 2011
Back when the internet was still the Wild West, prospectors raced to register domain names comprised of third parties’ brands for the purpose of selling the domain name registration to the brand owner at a premium. Congress and ICANN acted to remedy this through the Anti-Cybersquatting Piracy Act (ACPA) and Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) respectively. Somehow, some people missed that legal development, including a Canadian fellow named Dorian Banks.
Geekview IP week(s) Review
By Rimon Admin | Oct 09, 2011
CA Water District’s new domain names unfairly drown out Central Basin Municipal Water District.
Apple Tribute Infringement?
By Rimon Admin | Oct 07, 2011
On October 5, 2011 Steve Jobs died and the world lost a great man.
In honor, one of my tech friends, Eric Greenspan of Make It Work, posted the above image to his Facebook page yesterday afternoon, which I immediately “Liked.” (Eric also took part in a moving HuffPost Tribute to Steve Jobs, which can be seen here). Let me correct myself; I immediately loved this image. It’s so simple and powerful. It’s the perfectly beautiful human side of Apple. It made me teary-eyed.
Apple Denied! TTAB Upholds Refusal to Register MULTI-TOUCH
By Rimon Admin | Sep 28, 2011
Apple is known for innovation. Above on the left is Apple’s revolutionary touch-screen device. Above on the right is a portion of the patent for this device. Apple’s introduced the iPhone on January 9, 2007 (has it only been five years?). On the very same day, it filed a federal trademark registration application for MULTI-TOUCH. Since I know you’re dying to know, the IPHONE trademark registration application was filed on September 26, 2006, although not by Apple. It was filed by a company named Ocean Telecom Services, which applied based on its foreign registration of the IPHONE mark in Trinidad and Tobago. Ocean Telecom merged with Apple on October 5, 2007, and Apple took over ten pending IPHONE trademark registration applications from Ocean Telecom.
Media Industry Strikes Back at Online Infringement
By Rimon Admin | Jul 18, 2011
This blog originally appeared on the Wiliam Galkin's Law Blog.
It’s no secret that piracy of music and movies over the Internet is rampant and costs industry billions of dollars annually. Most people involved in this activity are not hardened criminals, and if asked, will probably admit that it is a technical violation of the law, but that it’s not really that illegal. You might even hear an argument that since industry is resigned to the fact that nothing can be done about it, it’s basically permissible. Legal solutions alone clearly have not worked. Most acknowledge that the only solution is an innovative combination of advanced detection technology and enforcement of applicable intellectual property and Internet laws. Well, perhaps a first step in this direction has now occurred.
Using Competitor’s Trademark as Advertising Keyword Deemed Infringement
By Rimon Admin | Feb 26, 2011
The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California recently ruled that the purchase of a competitor's registered trademark through Google Inc.'s AdWords program for sponsored keyword advertising on the search engine website constituted "use in commerce" under the Latham Act.