Intellectual Property - Blogs
- Tafas v. Doll Request for Extension of Time
IPWatchdog is reporting that Tafas and Glaxo have filed a joint motion to extend the time to file a petition for panel rehearing or a petition for rehearing en banc. According to the motion, the government is considering whether to request rehearing of the panel's decision that the continuation rules are invalid because they conflict [...]
(April 23, 2009) - Friday favourites
Fancy a change of scene? Why not check out the Forthcoming Events column on the IPKat's side bar? If an event is FREE, he's listing it in blue. The Kat is also listing things that aren't formal events, but which are just plain interesting: these are in green. IPKat-supported events are red. If there's a discount, it's in this colour. Bye, bye Butterworths? Not quite ... According well-informed sources close to Chancery Lane, from tomorrow the company currently known by the somewhat unlovely and...
(April 23, 2009) - Precedential No. 17: TTAB Dismisses Bayer "FLANAX" Cancellation Claims - No ...
Flummoxed by Bayer's three attempts to properly plead its claims, the Board granted three-fourths of Registrant Belmora's motion for dismissal for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. Bayer lost its Section 2(d) and its fraud claim by failing to allege prior use of its mark FLANAX in the United States by itself or by someone on its behalf. Bayer's claim under Article 6bis of the Paris Convention was jettisoned because the Convention is not self-executing and Section 44 of...
(April 23, 2009) - Posthumous pleasure for performers
In case you missed it, the European Parliament website yesterday published this item (thanks, Hugo Cox, for forwarding the link): "Music copyright to be extended to 70 years for performers Copyright term for music recordings must be extended from 50 years to 70 years, says legislation adopted on Thursday by the European Parliament. By adopting the report by Brian Crowley (IE, UEN) with 377 votes in favour, 178 against and 37 abstentions, MEPs voted to increase the term of copyright protection...
(April 23, 2009) - Writing About Famous Dead People
Dear Rich: I am a writer (no, really, professionally published and everything) and am working on a novel in which I want to include a historical personage of the 20th century as a character. This gentleman died in the 1990s and was a labor leader who was much in the papers. He is not the protagonist of the book, but is a pivotal character. Would I get into trouble using his name and biographical details, or should I fictionalize the man out of all recognition? I'm so glad you asked. The short...
(April 23, 2009) - CLE: IP Ethics
Next week, May 1, John Marshall is hosting a Law Day IP legal ethics program: Ethics in the Practice of Intellectual Property Law. The program offers four hours of ethics credits (the same amount of ethics credits required by Illinois in every two year reporting period). The program looks excellent and appears to be free. Click here for more information.
(April 23, 2009) - New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Neil Young on May 3, and May 4, 1970
My colleague Carolyn Jack today is blogging about the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, a stirring example of art's power to give vitality to a troubled city. It isn't easy to figure out an angle that ties the Jazz Fest to law, but I don't need to. One of my favorite lawyer/bloggers is Ray Ward, who blogs as Minor Wisdom (the name a paranomasia apparent to any lawyer). Ray lives in New Orleans, and for him the night before Jazz Fest is "Like Christmas Eve." He's my source for all things...
(April 23, 2009) - Wikipedia should know better
Determining whether the use of someone else's trademark is a non-infringing fair use does not involve an analysis identical to determining whether the use of someone's copyrighted work is a fair use, but there are significant similarities. One is that the absence of any exploitation of the commercial value of the intellectual property is a significant reason to find that use of the trademark is not infringing. Another is that the property interest one has in the intellectual property has to be...
(April 23, 2009) - First Quarter Venture Capital Funding at 12-Year Low
By Donald Zuhn -- Late last week, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), a trade association representing the U.S. venture capital industry, announced the release of their quarterly MoneyTree Report (based on data from Thomson Reuters), which showed that venture capitalists had invested $3.0 billion in 549 deals in the first quarter of 2009. The first quarter figures were down 47% in terms of dollars invested and down 37% in terms of the number of deals as...
(April 22, 2009) - Pharma & Biotech Global Week in Review 24 Apr 09 from IP Think Tank
Here is IP Think Tank's weekly selection of top Pharma & Biotech intellectual property news breaking in the blogosphere and internet. Please join the discussion by adding your comments on any of these stories, and please do let us know if you think we've missed something important, or if there is a source you think should be monitored. You can separately subscribe to the IP Think Tank Global Week in Review at the Subscribe page: [duncanbucknell.com] Highlights this week included: Kenya's...
(April 22, 2009) - Music Publishing A Good Investment
by Tamera H. Bennett Two hundred million dollars is just a drop in the bucket to purchaser classic song copyrights such as "The Sound of Music" and the "King and I." I guess that is what Imagem Music Group, a Dutch pension fund, thought when they purchased the music publishing catalog containing the hits and Broadway [...]
(April 22, 2009) - Michael Savage Takedown Letter Might Violate 512(f)--Brave New Media v. Weiner
By Eric Goldman Brave New Films 501(C)(4) v. Weiner, 2009 WL 1011712 (N.D. Cal. April 15, 2009). The Justia page. In October 2007, radio personality Michael Savage (aka Weiner--hence the case caption) went on an anti-Muslim tirade on his radio show. This has become the source of at least 2 lawsuits. The first lawsuit was brought by Savage against the Council for American-Islamic Relations, which posted 4 minutes of excerpts to its website as part of critical remarks about Savage. I previously...
(April 22, 2009) - Food & Trademark News
The New York Times reports, Lawyers Enter Twitter Tempest: "Mr. Rucinsky, a 30-year-old part-time art dealer who uses his middle name as his last name when he writes, sends silly blurbs on Twitter and writes inane blog postings that purport to reflect Ms. Freeman's musings about New York City restaurants, like 'Governor of Texas raving about Secession on TV all week. Must be great word of mouth for Bouley!' His fake Restaurant Girl also ventures into more cosmic concerns: 'Does anyone know what...
(April 22, 2009) - Sagging
For the first time, the USPTO "issued more patents to foreigners than to Americans," reports Business Week. "[T]he slippage comes amid recent reports that show the U.S. losing its edge when it comes to innovation." South Korea, China, and Japan are becoming more productive inventors. "All told, American inventors received 92,000 patents in 2008, down 1.8% from the year before and a rise of just 1.4% over the past decade. Meantime, patients issued to foreigners rose 4.5%, to 93,244, in 2008 and...
(April 22, 2009) - Don’t Fall for Patent Registry Scams
Recently, we've had a rash of clients receiving misleading demands for fees relating to patents and trademarks. These demands typically take the form of official-looking letters that falsely suggest a connection with the International Bureau of WIPO or European Patent Office, and that solicit fees for some supposed service such as "registration" of a patent or patent application. One recently received letter contains specific details about a published PCT patent application, and asked that EUR...
(April 22, 2009) - Prescriptions for Drafting Assertable Claims
Many patent cases are won and lost on claim drafting issues. In the recent Netcraft case, for instance, the claimed included the step of "providing a communications link through equipment of the third party." In his three "Prescriptions for Drafting Assertable Claims, Ron Slusky shows how to avoid the drafting mistakes found in that claim. Ron Slusky is the author of Invention Analysis and Claiming: A Patent Lawyer's Guide (ABA). Slusky's seminars will be in seven venues this year: Chicago,...
(April 22, 2009) - Inter Partes Reexams Deflating in the E.D. Tex.
BarTex Research LLC v. Fedex Corp., 6:07-CV-385 (E.D. Tex., April 20, 2009) BarTex sued FedEx in August 2007 alleging infringement of a Scott Harris patent directed to a "bar code data entry device." While the suit was pending, pleadings were filed in an Illinois litigation stating that the Fish & Richardson law firm (Harris's former employer) had asserted ownership over some of Harris's patents, including the patent-in-suit. BarTex filed for Partial Summary Judgment of ownership in the...
(April 22, 2009) - Yesterday's TWIL (This Week in Law) episode to be available online starting this weekend (@dhowell)
Recorded versions of yesterday's live "This Week in Law" episode (episode #23), hosted by Denise Howell and featuring me, Eric Goldman, Colette Vogele, and Evan Brown, should be up this weekend at [twit.tv] and in iTunes [is.gd] -->-->*-->* Document published online at Internet Law & Regulation-->Commentary & discussion: []-->--> -->--> Keywords: lawyer digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music...
(April 22, 2009) - Judge Gants Hold StubHub Not Protected by CDA Section 230 (relying on Roommates.com Decision)
In what may have been Judge Ralph Gants' last opinion before departing Suffolk Superior Court for the Supreme Judicial Court on January 29, 2009, on January 26 Judge Gants ruled on a number of issues in the New England Patriots lawsuit against StubHub.com. The claims are based on the fact that StubHub provides an online marketplace for the scalping of Patriot's tickets, something that really pisses off the Patriots' owners, who attempt to exercise a high degree of control over their ticket...
(April 22, 2009) - Appeals court issues stay of RIAA proceeding targeting SUNY Albany students, Arista Records v. ...
In Arista Records v. Does 1-16, a "John Doe" case targeting students at the State University of New York at Albany, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has issued a stay of the RIAA subpoena and all proceedings during the pendency of John Doe #3's appeal. This is a case in which several John Does had moved to quash the subpoena, vacate the ex parte discovery order, and dismiss the complaint. The motion to vacate, quash, and dismiss, was based on a number of grounds, including the...
(April 22, 2009) - 3 Count: Just Bragging
This is daily column on Plagiarism Today where the site brings you three of the days biggest, most important copyright and plagiarism news links. If you want to offer your feedback on the column, use the contact form or just follow me on Twitter at @plagiarismtoday. 1: Pirate Bay lawyer calls for retrial First off today, allegations of bias have come up against the judge who ruled on The Pirate Bay case. It appears that the judge who recently found the four founders guilty and sent them to jail...
(April 22, 2009) - Turn the other one? Or liberty? Or death?
Right - we will resolve these all here and now. Key issues. Fish or cut bait. Or we most assuredly will all hang separately! The Daily Mail reports, " Cheeky team applies to use 'Obama' as a European trademark": A group of enterprising Spaniards is set to win the European trademark rights to a word with instant [...]
(April 22, 2009) - Welcome to the Symmes & Hsu Law Blog
Welcome to the Symmes & Hsu Law Blog. This is an interactive blog that details current events in sports, entertainment and gambling law as well as discusses legal issues and projects that are currently being undertaken by attorneys Richard Symmes and Jay Hsu. Feel free to leave a comment and weigh in on any blog entries. [...]
(April 22, 2009) - The judge, the Swedish Copyright Association and an error of judgment...
An interesting development in the Pirate Bay case: the BBC reports that Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde, who were found guilty of breaking copyright laws by a Swedish Court last week, might seek a "retrial" based on the ground that the judge in the case, Judge Tomas Norstrom, is a member of the Swedish Copyright Association and sits on the board of Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property. The judge was quick to point out on Swedish...
(April 22, 2009) - The end of piracy?
(via ORG-discuss list) Pirates, pirates, pirates. it's all there is in the news lately. Pirates in Somalia, pirates in Sweden, pirates online, pirates in culture. We have pirates jumping out of our breakfast cereals it seems. Last week saw the pinnacle of hyperbolic coverage of piracy of the Internet sort when the Pirate Bay operators were sentenced to a year in jail. We were promised by talking heads on TV that the ruling would be the beginning of the end of internet piracy, and that a new and...
(April 22, 2009) - Judge In Pirate Bay Trial Biased
The judge who handed down the harsh sentence to the four accused in the The Pirate Bay trial was biased, writes Sveriges Radio (Sweden Public Radio): sr.se (swedish). Google translation. The judge is member of two copyright lobby organizations, something he shares with several of the prosecutor attorneys (Monique Wadsted, Henrik Pontén and Peter Danowsky). The organizations in question are Svenska Föreningen för Upphovsrätt (SFU) and Svenska föreningen för industriellt rättsskydd (SFIR)....
(April 22, 2009) - Copyright Lobby Targets ‘Pirate Bay For Books’
TTVK, a Finnish national copyright lobby, is threatening a book rental service called Bookabooka for allegedly running the 'Pirate Bay for Books'. Bookabooka however does not offer a torrent tracker service, nor does it enable a user in any way to download eBooks; it simply provides a place for book owners to rent textbooks to each other via the traditional mail service. It is mandatory that all textbooks must be originals. The service is used by a lot of School and University students, and it...
(April 22, 2009) - BSA Member List Changes
Vigilant monitoring of the BSA's member list can help you protect your business from unneeded expense associated with a BSA-initiated software audit. The BSA member list changes as software publishers are added to and removed from the BSA's publicly available list of member software publishers. Most recently, the newest software publisher to join the BSA is Sheba Distribution, a division of Garmin Ltd., producer of the popular Garmin navigation and communication devices. Avid, EMC Corporation,...
(April 22, 2009) - There still is nothing new under the sun. So what is originality?
Is Coldplay original? As Paste reports, "Back in December, . . . guitarist Joe Satriani was accusing Coldplay of plagiarizing his song, "If I Could Fly," with their undeniably catchy, monster hit, "Viva La Vida." Coldplay has now responded, claiming Satriani's song is not original enough to be infringed. Of course, Satriani's lawyer disputes the legitimacy of this defense: Coldplay and its lawyers saying Satriani's song doesn't even deserve protection because it "lacks originality." So, they're...
(April 22, 2009) - Most U.S. Businesses Should Co-Operate With BSA Audit Demands…To A Point
A recent article published by a U.K. business journal suggested that U.K. businesses should refuse to co-operate with demands by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) for information regarding BSA-member software installations and licenses. A copy of that article is available here. The article's sources appear to base their suggestions on a combination of personal experience and, perhaps, assumptions about the BSA's operating procedures in U.K.-based software audit matters. One source is cited...
(April 22, 2009) - BSA Audit Procedures
Most BSA Audits begin with a report from a disgruntled employee or former employee. The Business Software Alliance maintains telephone hotlines and a web site to encourage disgruntled employees and vendors to make anonymous reports against companies of all sizes. The BSA dedicates a substantial portion of its revenue marketing on radio stations and the internet to these "rats," promising them confidentiality and the ability to make an anonymous complaint. The current ad on Google reads: BSA -...
(April 22, 2009) - Biden Promises ‘Right Person’ As Copyright Czar
Vice President Joe Biden lauded Hollywood at a gala dinner in Washington, assailed movie piracy, and promised film executives that the Obama administration would pick "the right person" as its copyright czar. Biden warned of the harms of piracy at the private event organized by the Motion Picture Association of America in the sumptuous, newly renovated Great Hall of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. "It's pure theft, stolen from the artists and quite frankly from the American...
(April 22, 2009) - Court grants leave to RIAA to file its response to FSF amicus brief
In SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, the RIAA has been granted leave to file its proposed response to the Free Software Foundation's amicus curiae brief. The docket entry reads as follows: Judge Nancy Gertner: Electronic ORDER entered granting [816] Motion for Leave to File Response Brief in Tenenbaum by All Plaintiffs; Counsel using the Electronic Case Filing System should now file the document for which leave to file has been granted in accordance with the CM/ECF Administrative...
(April 22, 2009)