From the fire into the frying pan: Blawg Review #86
Infamy or Praise, which treated us to an infernal Blawg Review a while back, lightens up a bit.
Written by: 
Ron Coleman
Civil liberties types comment on New York’s proposed anti-Internet rules for lawyers
Comments on the Empire State legal guild’s reaction to modernity closed yesterday. Greg Beck writes about what the ‘CLU folks sent in. Read more
Trademark City
The Strategic Name Development blog reports that the naming rights to the New York Mets’ new baseball stadium have been sold to Citigroup. The stadium will be called “CitiField” and the privilege of that garish plug will cost Citigroup $20 million a year, or the cost of a grade-A free agent. The blog post has a great rundown on alternative “Citi” names that were considered, as well as a roundup of back-page and other learned... Read more
Hobnobbing with the power boys
We’ve been blogrolled by the Hobnobblog (three b’s there), a commercial blog for The Capitol Net, a company that does Washingtonish things. I don’t look down my nose at any blogrolling; it’s an excellent form of networking that does not harm the environment or encourage extremism. But this one I am having some trouble figuring out. Which is typical of most Washingtonish things. Thanks for adding me, you — you — Hobnobblog. Read more
Last chance to save democracy, LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION
I know, I know — redundant. So in that spirit, I am reprinting part of what I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago, because comments close on the 15th of November and, what do you know, it’s already the tenth: Public Citizen’s CL&P (Consumer Law and Policy) Blog wrote in September that New York is considering draconian advertising rules that would essentially make it impossible for lawyers to maintain blogs. I am excerpting... Read more
Love is blue. Litigation is love. Litigation is war. Love is war. War is Blue.
The fallacy, of course, is not only in affirming the consequent plus no small amount of equivocation, but in the probable falsehood of the second link in the chain to which only a few fortunate ones among us subscribe. Still and all, you can’t get a better introduction to this masterpiece of the civil procedural arts, a Seventh Circuit dissection of poorly litigated and poorly adjudicated motion practice all ado over a poorly drafted settlement... Read more
Stolen post.
Is Counterfeit Chic the best soft IP blog out there? It might be. Susan Scafidi blows me away, and this post — nicked per her instructions (we call that a license, right, Susan? — but, whither quality control?) is just one example why. Susan doesn’t only cover the trademark counterfeiting territory like a blanket, she does it with literary skill, wit and excellent legal analysis. Counterfeit Chic is required reading. UPDATE: All that and the... Read more
Update on proposed New York anti-law-blog bill
Today’s New York Law Journal has an article on the proposed new regulations that would destroy the use of the Internet by lawyers, stating that most of the bar groups commenting on them consider them too broad or worse. It makes reference to a magnum opus on the topic by real estate attorney Joshua Stein, whose down to earth site does not necessarily scream, “Latham & Watkins partner” — but that’s what he is. The... Read more
China may roll back blog anonymity
I wrote a few weeks ago that perhaps the most compelling novelty of the power of the Internet is not the virtual absence of barriers to entry to the market of communications. Rather, it is the fact that this aspect of transparency is paradoxically paired with an historic power to communicate without personal accountability for what you say or how it affects others. In other words, you can publish for free, and to everyone, and... Read more
Legal Terms – A Quick Guide
To inaccuracy, that is. Two howlers: Intellectual Property: A product or idea that has tangible commercial value. * * * Trademark: A name, label or symbol identifying a product or web site. Trademarks are filed with the Patent and Trademark Office and restricted to a class of products or services. “Amazon” is a trademarked term for Internet services, but not for general references such as ecological discussions. Just one more reason not to believe everything... Read more
TTABlog lives it
The Patent and Trademark Office has denied reconsideration of its denial of John Welch’s application for a registration for TTABLOG. John has appealed — to the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board (TTAB). Well, of course, John. How could it be otherwise? Your application was never meant to be granted anywhere south of the topic of your blog, and the examiner knew that. This is shaping up to be one of the great self-referential trademark adventures... Read more
Egorati gets a spin
The New York Times catches onto Technorati. Read more
INTA on Initial Interest Confusion
The work of my INTA subcommittee, on an issue raised by me (and followed through on mostly by others): INTA – Initial Interest Confusion September 18, 2006 ADOPTED RESOLUTION: INTA recommends that courts recognize that the initial interest confusion doctrine is not separate from a likelihood of confusion analysis. It is simply a timing question as to when confusion occurs, which recognizes confusion that is dispelled before an actual sale occurs may be actionable. Courts... Read more
Google search results not a trademark infringement
Mercury News reports: A federal judge granted Google a significant victory Thursday, ruling that the search engine did not violate federal law when it sold trademarked terms in an online advertising auction. Judge Norman Mordue, of the U.S. District Court, northern district of New York, dismissed a suit brought against Google by Rescuecom, a computer repair and consulting business. . . . The ruling states that Google’s use of trademarked terms to trigger online advertisements... Read more