Lawyer Ron Coleman on brands, the Internet & free speech
Brand Management and Branding
Bloomberg.com reports (links added): The biggest U.S. bank plans to sell its red umbrella trademark to St. Paul Travelers Cos. and operate under the “Citi” name after failing to get most consumers to think of…
Reuters reports: A Shenzhen company has been fined for sending bulk junk email in what is believed to be the first case of its kind in China where more than 50 billion spam messages are…
Section 2(a)
Does this story in the Northwest Asian Weekly about the trademark registration woes of a rock band called The Slants sound familiar? The Slants, whose members are of Asian descent, have amassed fans nationwide, taking the…
Rights of Publicity and Personality
Alec Rogers: In recent decades, Major League Baseball has made great strides in developing its business operation. No longer content to make money from tickets, concession sales, and a few radio and TV contracts, it…
Ever think it’s strange when you get a search result for another site (usually an on-line retailer) when you do a Google search? That may stop soon. Originally posted 2014-02-11 07:40:05. Republished by Blog Post…
Brand Management and Branding
Or at least trademark logos. Context: If you’re over 50, you can probably remember when television commercials were mainly 60 seconds or 30 seconds. There were exceptions. But the premise was you were sitting there…
Hmm. Working my territory. Not surprising considering who posted it… Originally posted 2007-06-28 12:18:00. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Costumes and Clothing
The intellectual property concerns regarding celebrity Halloween masks. Cheap-rubber-band-stapled-to-temples-of-plastic-mask tip to Overlawyered. Originally posted 2007-10-31 17:21:07. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Licensing
Only a real IP lawyer like Pamela Chestek can write about revoking an implied nonexclusive copyright license. And mean it. Originally posted 2011-03-24 17:58:18. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Public Domain
“Knock, knock.” “Who’s there?” “Watson.” “Watson who?” “Not much. But there is this decision from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois…” It would be tempting, to be…
The Kinderstart lawsuit over Google search engine placement has been dismissed, with leave granted to amend. Originally posted 2011-10-31 23:13:26. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Copyright Law
Imagine a world where producers and owners of TV shows, movies and the not only upload full-length copyrighted video content onto the Web in the full knowledge that it will be ripped off, but welcome…
Susan Scafidi reports: If Dad says no, ask Mom. And if the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York says no, ask the 2nd Circuit. As expected, Tiffany has filed a notice…
Fair Use
The evidence shows that “spam,” in addition to being petitioner’s trademark, has a well-recognized meaning as a generic term for unsolicited commercial email; the term isused by consumers, the media, Congress, state legislatures and those who sell solutions for such unwanted email. Thus, it does not have the requisite degree of distinctiveness to support a finding of dilution, at least vis-Ã -vis respondent’s use of the term as part of the mark SPAM ARREST for computer software designed to eliminate unsolicited commercial email.