LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION™

November 8, 2021 Fee Shifting

Lanham Act attorneys’ fees: Good to know

The situation with attorneys’ fees in “exceptional cases” under the Lanham Act is, to put it mildly, not clear. I’ve written about it from time to time here, including, in December, in connection with the important Second Circuit decision in Louis Vuitton v. Ly USA Inc., which held that a prevailing plaintiff in a trademark counterfeiting case may collect both statutory damages and attorneys’ fees. Well, I say “collect” — I really mean “be... Read more

November 7, 2021 Counterfeiting & Piracy

Poor eBay!

News item: eBay Beats The Street; Revenue Up 16 Percent To $2.5B; Net Income Up 12 Percent eBay just reported first quarter earnings today posting revenue of $2.5 billion, an increase of 16% from the same period of 2010. eBay’s net income on a GAAP basis of $475.9 million, or $0.36 per diluted share, and non-GAAP net income of $619.0 million, or $0.47 per diluted share, representing a 12% increase compared to the same period of 2010.... Read more

November 6, 2021 LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®

Anti-lawyer / doc gripe sites: More information, not regulation

Julie Hilden considers the legality of “Web ‘Blacklists’ at FindLaw: With the chance of misinterpreting information considerable, why not regulate – or even ban – sites like Litipages? And why not keep settlements confidential, as is the current practice – rather than making them open, as I have suggested?The answer is that there’s a cure for misinterpretation – and it’s more information, not government censorship. It’s condescending to suggest that Internet readers “can’t handle the... Read more

November 5, 2021 Roundups

Writing on to Blawg Review

I didn’t “go out” for law review in law school — don’t get me started — and my career has been a pretty sordid exercise since then because of it. I’m not making that mistake again. Next week this blog will be host of the second-ever edition of Blawg Review, the “carnival” (why a carnival? just because Glenn Reynolds calls these things carnivals? who made him chief pimp? (Meant in a good way.) Okay, who... Read more

November 4, 2021 Roundups

Blawg Review is here!

Never mind where they said it would be. It’s here! It’s here! (And that’s why you can’t rely on Blogger.) Originally posted 2011-02-15 13:30:03. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Read more

November 3, 2021 Trade Secrets

Pleas entered for illegal trafficking of Coke®; plus Ice

The bad people who tried to peddle internal Coca-Cola trade secrets, including samples of a new drink, to Pepsi — only to have Pepsi turn them in — have pleaded guilty to their manifestly stupid actions, according to the Daily Dose of IP Blog by Ice MillerSM attorney Mark Reichel. Hat tip to John Welch for the link to Mark’s blog, which appears comprehensive to say the least. I know I will lift something from... Read more

November 2, 2021 Free Expression

Joint trademark “ownership”: Tea for two? (Best of 2016)

Originally published January 25, 2016. It’s been almost ten years ago since the March 2006 blog post, which got a bit of play as it turned out, in which I expressed a sentiment that seemed incomprehensible to me at the time and a decade later I will admit I understand all too well: The idea that both Marvel and DC could, as they were, both claim to be own the putative trademark SUPER-HERO. I wrote this: DC... Read more

November 1, 2021 Government

Signed, sealed and delivered

That just about seals it for puns of this nature: As John Welch informs us, the Federal Circuit has affirmed the decision by the TTAB to reject the applications by the city of Houston and the District of Columbia to obtain trademark registrations for their official seals, a case first discussed here in July of 2012. The money quote, per John: Section 2(b) prohibits an “applicant” from registering a mark that “consists of or comprises... Read more

October 31, 2021 Copyright Law Gray Market

Canada: Copyright law not meant to protect distribution networks

The Gray Blog reports that the Canadian Supreme Court has rejected an attempt — the sort made all day all over North America — to utilize IP law as a “guaranteed distribution network protection act.” It’s the “grey market” or “parallel market” issue: Does a company have the right to demand that its goods be sold only through “authorized dealers”? The law is pretty clear that it can’t, but firms cook up all sorts of... Read more

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 posted 2012-02-13 11:03:00. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Read more

October 29, 2021 IP Overreaching

Likelihood of baloney

IP Law Chat chats about how “paranormalist” charlatan Uri Geller got all bent out of shape over Brian Sapient, a member of the “Rational Response Squad,” posting a video debunking Geller’s nonsense on YouTube. Using the last refuge of scoundrels — a DMCA takedown notice (the video incorporated a few seconds of Geller’s own media) — Geller had the video removed. The EFF has now responded on Sapient’s behalf to the effect that Geller should... Read more

October 28, 2021 Law Practice and Profession

When an Issue of First Impression Makes a Bad One

Have you ever read a decision and just marveled at the apparent restraint of the judges? “Why don’t they tell this party to shut up?” you wonder. “Why don’t they sanction him, throw him in jail, and seize all of his assets, just for advancing such a ludicrous argument?” The August 20, 2013, decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Unclaimed Property Recovery Service, Inc. v. Kaplan is such... Read more

Jonathan Rogers: Is YouTube “Monetizing Piracy”?

Originally posted 2012-06-11 19:57:19. Republished by Blog Post Promoter. I like this from Jonathan Rogers: On the YouTube blog, the company posted an announcement about a deal struck with many music publishers. Now, when users upload videos with background music that is copyrighted music, instead of begin taken down, if it belongs to certain publishers, an ad will play, and at least some of the revenue sent to that publisher to pay for the royalties that should be... Read more