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... Read more
Category: Fair Use
No jokey!
Did you ever contemplate the grand institution of karaoke and ask, hey, how do they do that? Copyright-wise, that is? Don’t wonder any more. Originally... Read more
More fantasy sports litigation
We wrote in the past about the bogus “right of publicity” issue and the unsuccessful attempt by major league sports to claim ownership in statistics... Read more
Pre-kill
And once again, resistance to Eriq Gardner is futile — his piece, linked to in the tweet embedded below, tells the whole story with his characteristically lucid prose... Read more
Best of 2010: An opinion to Di for
First posted on May 5, 2010. I do a lot of bellyaching around here about how there are never any consequences for filing frivolous trademark... Read more
Jews for Jesus Redux (or, the Second Filing)
Jews for Jesus sues Google over blog SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Christian evangelical group Jews for Jesus is suing Google Inc., saying a Web log... Read more
Trademark parodies and iconic marks: can foul become fair?
In 2010 I wrote this post about a now-notorious case, eventually ensconced as Louis Vuitton Malletier, S.A. v. Hyundai Motor America, 2012 WL 1022247 (S.D.N.Y.,... Read more
eBay, VeRO and the Scientologists
Last February Scott Pilutik, an aggressively anti-religion blogger and lawyer, posted this excellent piece about the abuse by the Scientology cult of eBay’s VeRO program,... Read more
More Obama poster postings
Here’s a little bit of an update / roundup from Brian Ledbetter on the story about the litigation surrounding the famous Obama poster, focusing on... Read more
Authors Guild v. Google: Judge Chin’s decision in favor of Google Books
Anyone looking for the Author’s Guild v. Google decision on the Southern District of New York website is going to have a hard time: It’s... Read more
Righthaven Agonistes
Is all this copyright jurisprudence lollipops and rainbows? Let us reflect a little on what Righthaven has wrought, so far. Wired weighs in on the... Read more
“We cannot allow our brand to be abused”
Originally posted on November 13, 2008: “We cannot allow our brand to be abused.” What “brand” is that? The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.... Read more
“DUMB STARBUCKS”: Grasping at laws.
Your blawger, he is conflicted. Part of me does not want to give the—ahem—geniuses behind the DUMB STARBUCKS stunt any more press, but the rest... Read more
Best of 2013: Turning back that Crimson Tide
Originally published January 8, 2013 Trademark law does not trump the right to make and sell artistic depictions of real life after all, it turns... Read more