LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION™

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

A sleazy new magazine steals blogger Michael Yon’s work, refuses to back down; he’s revving up the copyright lawsuit — and the indignation. Via Instapundit. Read more

… just a little over there, to the right. I’ve wound down the operation of the Coleman Law Firm and become a partner at the New York firm of Bragar, Wexler & Eagel, PC. It’s been fairly all consuming lately, so I hope you will not give up on Likelihood of Confusion. I should be back to blogging this week. Read more

Protest Warrior reports about the left-winger who took cyber-protest too far: On May 23, 2006, a grand jury at the U.S. District Court in Illinois handed down an indictment against Jeremy Alexander Hammond for hacking into the ProtestWarrior server. The indictment reads in part, “Between January and February 2005, defendant HAMMOND accessed ProtestWarrior.com’s server without authority on multiple occasions in an effort to obtain information not otherwise available to him or the general public, specifically... Read more

Two of the least probable Commonwealth countries* slug it out! The AP reports: An Indian court has ruled that Indian whiskey manufacturers cannot use the words Scot or Scotch to describe their products, in compliance with World Trade Organization rules, a newspaper reported Monday. Indian plans its own genteel revenge (think Darjeeling tea). It’s a big setback for “Red Scot” (the Indian scotch brand), considering that, as the (real) Scotsman reports, “Analysts believe the Indian... Read more

The Ninth Circuit says, Not that much. And — don’t think this isn’t part of it — what kind? (Via IP.) UPDATE:  It could be worse.  Really. Read more

The Supreme Court has rejected the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s request to review the Fourth Circuit’s decision that permitted Falwell.com, a website critical of the conservative preacher, to remain in operation. Been there. Done that. Only in the wrong circuit, I guess. Read more

By now you’ve heard that Muhammed Ali has sold the rights to exploit his once-platinum name and fame for $50 million. It’s a little late in the game for The Greatest, I suppose, but why not? Here’s a trademark-and-branding sub-angle to the story, though, that really has me scratching my head: Mr. Ali, through affiliates, will retain a 20% interest in the business, which will be operated through a newly formed company named G.O.A.T. LLC.... Read more

From Reuters: The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear arguments in a patent case involving online auctioneer eBay Inc. that is part of a wider struggle between the software and pharmaceutical industries over the future of the U.S. patent system. Lawyers for eBay and small e-commerce company MercExchange will square off over whether eBay should be barred from using its popular “Buy it Now” feature, which infringes on two MercExchange patents. This is of... Read more