LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION™

We’ve written about Apple’s attempt to command the “pod space” in terms of trademark by the transmission of aggressive cease and desist letters. Now it appears they’re willing to buy the parts of it they can’t merely force to surrender, which is eminently reasonable. Certainly this does amount to an unusually aggressive, which is not to say unwise, brand protection strategy: Apple Computer Inc., maker of the iPod digital-music player, will pay a New Jersey... Read more

New mandatory blog for federal litigators (including, of course, trademark and copyright practitioners) and others interested in the world of Big Law. David Lat, formerly associated with Article III Groupie, is going full guns on lawyer gossip. Evidently, some lawyers have a lot more interesting lives than I do. Ok, more than “some.” UPDATE: Not everyone is amused, not suprisingly. Read more

Here’s a somewhat interesting copyright battle, courtesy of Gothamist: A former NYPD detective tapped to take Ground Zero photos by disgraced former Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik won’t make a dime peddling his pictures if the Bloomberg administration gets its way. “Aftermath: Unseen 9/11 Photos by a New York City Cop,” the 200-page work set to hit bookstores at $44.95 next week, features the work of John Botte. Kerik gave the veteran crime-scene photographer “privileged access”... Read more

The UK Independent reports that Google is waking up to its Google-as-verb problem. Here’s a similar report in the Washington Post. Why did Google wait so long? I am sure it has its reasons; I’m tempted to spend some time Googling to see what other people think, but you can Google it, yourselves. UPDATE: Most in-depth analysis I’ve seen, from Search Engine Watch. An odd case that sounds like “do what I say, not what... Read more

Somehow the words “Meat Loaf” and “settle” belong together, but here it’s another sad litigation settlement, another juicy lawsuit undercooked. Read more

I will be part of a panel, along with a number of distinguished colleagues, at the above-named program of New Jersey’s Institute for Continuing Legal Education, presented in cooperation with the N.J. State Bar Association‘s Internet and Computer Law Committee (of which I am a member) and the same association’s Entertainment, Arts & Sports Law Section. Whew. I’ll be speaking on the topic of developments in Internet-related trademark law. It’s in New Brunswick, New Jersey.... Read more

An attempt to sell the famous (to New Yorkers) Crazy Eddie trademark on eBay was manifestly unsuccesful, it seems. It’s a serious question what you’d be buying if you could find some reason to buy the Crazy Eddie mark (the Buy It Now price was $800,000 and the high bid was a little more than $30,000), because this seems as much like a “naked assignment” or “assignment in gross” of a trademark — i.e., a... Read more

Timothy Noah writes in the (awfully redesigned) Slate: Looking back from the 22nd century, future historians will marvel at the current era’s obsession with extending intellectual property rights well past any reasonable limit. Well, not if they read this blog! The piece is about a patent granted to a five-year old child for the “business process” of swinging. Swinging. On a swing. In a playground. I guess it’s all about the altitude — or the... Read more

Evan Brown asks: “Should a website owner only pre-populate its form fields with the names of states in which it is willing to conduct litigation?” Read more