LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®

Originally posted 2014-02-27 18:09:59. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Last week’s utterly unmissable topical tweets via @roncoleman:

• RT @ptolawyer: The TM case that won’t go away – Redskins case on way to SCOTUS: http://bit.ly/BJoq6 — See my http://bit.ly/P4NA3
• RT @gfiremark Veoh wins copyright case, YouTube’s lawyers cheer http://bit.ly/3V2dpC
• RT @MegLG: Patent Troll Tracker defamation case goes to trial —http://ow.ly/pxXp (My original coverage here http://digg.com/u1CcVV)
• RT @InternetLaw Ninth Circuit Groaner About Metatags–Art Attacks v. MGA http://tinyurl.com/qlqh9c
• “It’s not even a close call,” said Jerald Fritz, Politico’s general counsel. “Brand and names are essential for… http://bit.ly/3Qj7K5

Now, fly like the wind!

Originally posted 2010-08-15 17:50:10. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

[From October 26, 2009:] Here are last week’s greatest twits from @roncoleman:

• RT @ptolawyer: Subway sues Vegas restaurant for TM infringement -TacticalIP.com IP Bully of the Month? http://bit.ly/3c2lNO
• RT @nowsourcing: RT @toprank The Truth About SEO http://retwt.me/180kb
• RT @VBalasubramani: AutoAdmit web defame case settled http://bit.ly/1DX5kp (@bnatechlaw) case –> issues re online interaction, anonymity
• RT @GuyKawasaki: 25 logos that underwent makeovers in 2009 http://om.ly/RDAr
• RT @EFF: NPR sends bogus DMCA takedown over anti-same-sex-marriage ad; another political “fair MISuse” http://bit.ly/4q4Vzk
• RT @CopyrightLaw Harry Potter themed dinner banned for ‘infringing copyright’ http://tinyurl.com/yzxnnad

As to the last of these, you will want to see, of course, my continuing series on the wicked ways of Lady Voldemart herself.

I wrote “VoldeMART” there, see.  Not VoldeMORT.  One’s a “flight” of commerce; the other’s a flight of death.  Evidently, however, they flock together.

Originally posted 2010-08-10 17:08:43. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

But that doesn’t mean you aren’t entitled to a long-overdue of key topical tweets of the last few weeks … or so.

At my age I get lazy reflective; I get misty.  In the old days these retweets via @roncoleman [now, please, follow @likely2confuse instead! — RDC] would have justified entire blog posts.  Sure, that was in the early days of blogging, like three years ago, but still.  In this, the modern era, I post somewhat less frequently, but you do get the tweets (if you’re not a twitterer the links are still running in the gadget on the left there).

And the posts themselves?  Hefty, yeah?  Of course, yeah. Hef-ty.

Which is not to give short shrift to these tweets.  They are the crème de la crème — no, really the ne plus ultra, frankly…  Well, actually, more specifically, they are the most salvageable among topical utterances I didst tweet since June.  So while I hate to repeat myself, there are some things we just have to be aware of if we’re reading LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®:

• @CopyrightLaw: Public Knowledge: “The Doctor Will Be Right With You… After You Sign Over Your Copyright”
• @DuetsBlog: Trademark Dilution: What About All “The Other Red Meat(s)”?
• @PaulBaldovin: RIAA Lawyers Paid – $16,000,000 / Recovered – $391,000 / Lost – Countless Music Fans via @glynmoody
• @InternetLaw: Gregory Dickinson on narrowing Immunity under Section 230 of Communications Decency Act
• @TTABlog : The law of trade dress and functionality almost 10 years after TrafFix: Jammed up as ever
• @TrademarkBlog: Mix-in’s as grey goods: Identifying third-party ingredients by brand names
• @UsefulArts: Florida claims worldwide jurisdiction on web defamation re state or its residents. | Ouch. We lose.
• @kevinokeefe: When Not Responding Online Is The Right Response. Don’t feed the trolls.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Originally posted 2009-11-17 19:33:17. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

You know the drill!  Here’s some of what I found flying around out there that relates to LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®’s docket  and which I saw fit to share, little-birdy-like, with those following @roncoleman last week:

• RT @copyrightlaw: Secrecy surrounding Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agrmnt (ACTA) worries public interest groups http://bit.ly/2DUff
• RT @VBalasubramani interesting suit re sale of virtual goods and copyright infringement: http://j.mp/4BAMwz (@InfoLawGroup)
• RT @GuyKawasaki: What happens to email after you diehttp://om.ly/biPo — Well, what SHOULD happen?:http://bit.ly/4qL162 (LOC® 2006!)
• RT @smbayard: RT @InternetLaw Goldman: “A New Way to Bypass 47 USC 230? Default Injunctions and FRCP 65”http://bit.ly/4oNbyB
• RT @internetcases RT @eclewis – Ownership of IP on Social Networks http://is.gd/4TTfT
• RT @InternetLaw UK: High Court rejects libel case because article received approximately four visits http://bit.ly/1VDKvr

A nice harvest, once again.

Originally posted 2005-01-04 11:01:11. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Aha! See, the Blog Herald is asking the same question I did: Is 2005 the “Year of the Blog Backlash”?

Yaakov Menken of Cross-Currents – and my [former law firm]’s Web host – asked me why I said that I was finally going to jump on the blogging bandwagon just as the wheels were beginning to wobble sickeningly. Well, this is the first time I’ve seen anyone validate that at all. (And Lord knows how terribly hard it is to validate whatever pops into your head on the Internet.)

Of course, I also said that about real estate 15 years ago…. ten years ago… five years ago…. Nonetheless, as I said below, if you think of it as a medium — and not a trend — I think you can’t go wrong.

I guess sooner or later we’ll know if we’re early adopters, Johnnies-come-lately or whatever it is that comes in the middle.

On Point reports that a New Jersey federal magistrate has, to the surprise of no actual attorney I could imagine, ruled that MySpace and Facebook postings and other social networking communications are discoverable in civil litigation.

A New Jersey judge has allowed an insurance company being sued for denying benefits to children with eating disorders to conduct a “cyber-investigation” into the children’s postings on social networking websites.

Such investigations are becoming more common in lawsuits and U.S. Magistrate Judge Patty Shwartz’s decision isn’t likely to calm the fears of privacy advocates. The potential injury to the children from disclosure of their postings, she ruled, did not outweigh Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey’s need for the information.

Shwartz is handling discovery issues in two insurance coverage cases brought against Horizon by the parents of children suffering from anorexia or bulimia. The cases are Beye v. Horizon and Foley v. Horizon.

10 Years of LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®

“The Court will require production of entries on webpages such as ‘MySpace’ or ‘Facebook’ that the beneficiaries shared with others,” Shwartz said in a Dec. 14 order.

According to a Seattle TV station, Chrysler has taken a similarly intrusive approach by requesting access to the MySpace account of a woman who is suing the auto giant over injuries suffered in an auto accident. Marissa Schneider’s MySpace page includes an admission that she smoked pot in the past.

“To say that anything posted on MySpace is gospel is ludicrous and it really paves the way for you to say, ‘I can never post anything on this site because it’s going to be used against me,'” her attorney told KING 5 News.

I’d consider sanctioning that attorney if he admitted making such a stupid and, really, contumaceous remark.

Read More…

Having said that, here are some of the fragrant little nothings from all over been told by the little birdy, and which I’ve passed along via Twitter @roncoleman in the last week or so:

• @MegLG: via Media Law Prof Blog: IP and Social Networks http://ow.ly/GRq4
• @sivavaid RT @artbrodsky: Woman recording birthday party at theatre gets jail time. http://bit.ly/6mkHnp Hooray for Hollywood.
• @TrademarkBlog Should There Be Punishment For Bogus ‘Pre-Settlement’ Letters? | Techdirt http://bit.ly/57eMOW
• @future_of_music More Research To Back The Notion That Streaming Kills Piracy : http://bit.ly/6lO6lH
• @citmedialaw New post: ADA Online: Is a Website a “Place of Public Accommodation”? http://bit.ly/8ApByj

Read those and get back to me.

Here is the latest roundup of topical re-tweets that were tweeted to followers @roncoleman in the last week or so:

• @gfiremark New William Patry book arrives — with a new blog!http://bit.ly/INHCK
• @eschaeff Lawyers tripped up online: “A Legal Battle: Online Attitude vs. Rules of the Bar,” NY Times, http://bit.ly/8i2As
• @ptolawyer Google has yet to appease stakeholders concerned with privacy guarantees in copyright debate:http://bit.ly/4crVS
• @VBalasubramani ‘Viva Viagra’ Missile Infringed on Pfizer trademarks [CNS] http://bit.ly/VCn8p //sounds like a sketchy ruling (this led to my post here — should have been credited!)
• RT @adriandayton: RT @glambert: Blogging Lawyer Charged with Confidentiality Violations – http://bit.ly/mLcTj (careful what you blog)
• RT @nowsourcing RT @ritubpant – Egotistic Bastards : The Core Group That Dominates Social Media http://su.pr/1DfLRv Some can’t take hint

OK, gotta fly!

Here’s a notice regarding our lust for life from C.C. Holland at Law.com:

The litmus test for whether you should start a blog boils down to passion, says Kevin O’Keefe, CEO of professional blog service LexBlog and a blogger himself. “I think every attorney should consider blogging, [but] if you don’t have a passion for the subject, that shines through.”

Your enthusiasm might align with your area of practice or be completely tangential. For example, Ronald D. Coleman, a commercial litigator with Goetz Fitzpatrick who focuses on copyright, trademark and unfair competition, blogs about those topics on Likelihood of Confusion.

Nice to be mentioned in connection with enthusiasm.  A man becomes preeminent, he’s expected to have enthusiasms.

Blawg Review: #200 went up earlier last week, and, contemplating its bicentennial edition, it got a little philosophical. “Ed” (as in “Ed.,” the nom de keyboard of Blawg Review’s maestro) hosted last week’s edition himself in honor of this milestone.

I particular appreciate this bit, going off on a topic I first had the opportunity to become aware of, and comment on, in the second half of this post, i.e., the transparently commercial blog-as-billboard:

Last week’s host, Mark Bennett, suggested that lawyers who enter the legal blogosphere looking to profit by it are headed for public ridicule; instead, he recommends that “the practical blawgosphere wants you to succeed. Write worth a damn, join in the conversation, link to posts on the blawgs you like reading, and we’ll find your blog and spread the word.” Scott Greenfield applauded Bennett taking a similar position in his Blawg Review last week. Whereas Bennett said that profiteers were welcome in but not well-suited to the blawgosphere, Greenfield put it more bluntly: “This Blawgosphere Ain’t Big Enough for the Two of Us”: “So why can’t we all get along? Because the marketers don’t care about the blawgosphere. They care about the quick buck and scheme.” Austin Criminal Defense Attorney Jamie Spencer blogged about an attorney in Dallas, whose blog is so transparently marketing-oriented that it concludes a post about a bizarre case where a drunk driver ended up with her truck in someone’s pool with “If you too have driven a car into a pool and are in need of an experienced DWI lawyer….”

Who among us hasn’t wished he had that number handy, eh?

And, hey — there was plenty of praise to go around, too, even a little coming out this way:

Colin Samuels, at Infamy or Praise, will remember Blawg Review for the annual award that recognizes the best Blawg Review of the Year. This annual competition is open to all law blogs that have hosted Blawg Review, and the same blogger wins every year. Congratulations, Colin, for getting the most nominations for Blawg Review #189, based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, which has earned the award for Blawg Review of the Year 2008. Ron Coleman’s Blawg Review #191, a Chanukah special at Likelihood of Confusion, is this year’s runner-up. In third place in the voting, there was a tie between Rush Nigut’s Blawg Review #147 based on the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, and David Gulbransen’s Blawg Review #182, a special bar exam edition. Twenty-four issues of Blawg Review received nominations this year, which shows the quality and variety of presentations is appreciated.

Colin is very much the man, even if his spelling is a little weak.  His pumping of LOC for notice this year was worth every penny, it seems!

Congratulations to Colin and Blawg Review!