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I Read Dead Peoples’ Email: UPDATE

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Remember this item?  I wrote, regarding a family’s request for access to a serviceman’s email account after his death, as follows: I say that absent a specific compelling reason to get the email information — i.e., the location of his will or the buried treasure or something like that — it should die with the man. And, considering that, I would also require that the information ultimately revealed be narrowly-tailored as well. The court in…

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Ron Coleman

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Posted on Free Expression

Online use of trademarks and copyrights by “unauthorized distributors”

LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION does not generally comment about active cases in which we are directly involved. But a very important and detailed (61 pages!) summary judgment decision came down in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York last week, in the case of S & L Vitamins, Inc. v. Australian Gold, Inc., 2:05-cv-1217 in which I represent the plaintiff. And while we will not comment on the decision, for obvious reasons,... Read more

Posted on TTAB Practice

McCarthy speaks

This is really something!  I always knew John Welch was the definitive resource online, and then some, for what’s going on at the Trademark Trials and Appeal Board — the TTAB, of course — via his seminal, inimitable and comprehensive TTABlog®.  But I didn’t know that his blog was now an official resource for ex cathedra pronouncements from Himself! Check. This. Out. July 11, 2016 on the TTABlog: Professor McCarthy Criticizes the TTAB’s Dilution Analysis... Read more

Posted on Journalism

Not So Plain Dealing

Instapundit links to this teef-gnashing item from Michael Silence about this super-secret scandal, based on leaked documents, that the Cleveland Plain Dealer would for sure be investigating and breaking wide open ‘cept that those meanies on the Supreme Court make you go to jail if you won’t tell a criminal investigation who illegally leaked the documents you based your story on.Sorry, Professor, the real story is in the comments of the Silence piece. (Insert obligatory... Read more

Posted on Blogging

The infamy

Can you imagine a blog stealing someone else’s blog posts? How about a law blog stealing another lawyer’s blog posts? Don’t dream it — read it.  Courtesy of the inimitable Mr. Thorne. Originally posted 2013-09-02 07:00:48. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Read more

Posted on LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®

Stacking the deck

The National Law Journal, understandably skeptical about the U.S. News rankings, does its own analysis. UPDATE: Huh! And they aren’t the only ones: For many prospective lawyers, the best strategy may be a careful evaluation of the regional job market in the area of the country where they want to work. If they are not competitive for admission into a national law school — or are sure they are not interested in corporate law —... Read more

Posted on Blogging

Best of 2014: Law blogging — Time is of the essence. Not.

Originally posted on May 29, 2014. Had a delightful lunch with a couple of very interesting lawyers yesterday.  It would have been perfect if they hadn’t both lingered over salad nicoise while I sat there attacking my steak au poivre.  I too love salad nicoise, but this was a legitimate IRS-approved T&E write-off luncheon!  And one does so need the protein, as will be evident about halfway through this post. At one point, one of my companions... Read more

Posted on Fair Use

Best of 2008: The Long and Rocky Road

This was first posted on May 7, 2008. Irvin Robbins, the co-founder of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream chain, died yesterday. Here’s how much time has passed since just about the time your blogger was born, in ice cream marketing years: When the Beatles were to arrive in the United States in 1964, a reporter called to ask whether Baskin-Robbins was going to commemorate the event with a new flavor. Robbins didn’t have a flavor planned... Read more

Posted on Uncategorized

Libel lives; ethics, too

No “free speech absolutist” I, I like defamation as a cause of action when you can prove its elements, and I’m glad to see it hasn’t been completely eliminated by judges who raise the bar plaintiffs must overcome to impossible heights on imagined constitutional grounds. Maybe it helps if the plaintiff himself is a judge. Well, that works for me, too, as long as the next guy can take advantage of the precedent, and the... Read more

Posted on Rights of Publicity and Personality

Oh, yeah, Blue Ivy baby thing

As Lara Pearson puts it: For the past 3 days my in-box has been lighting up at a blistering pace with news alerts about every trademark attorney’s favorite celebrity infant – Blue Ivy Carter (whose mere existence somehow warrants a section on Huffington Post). According to the headlines, the brown eyed babe’s celebrity parents –Beyonce and Jay-Z – ”lost” their fight to protect BLUE IVY . . .  as a federally registered trademark that is. Lara then does a great job summing... Read more

Posted on Distribution systems

Best of 2011: Infinite loop

First posted (in updated form) on September 20, 2011.(Originally published on July 22, 2011; see update at bottom!) It can only mean one thing when you read this in a news article: On Friday morning, the RIAA released a brief statement; “We disagree with this decision and are considering our next steps.” That’s right:  It means U.S. District Court Judge Michael Davis has once again — for a third time — knocked down a jury’s copyright... Read more