Trademarkandcopyrightlawblog - trademarkandcopyrightlawblog.com - Trademark and Copyright Law
General Information:
Latest News:
The Madrid Protocol: Passage to India Now Open 24 Aug 2013 | 01:44 am
We previously reported that India was scheduled to become the 90th member of the Madrid Protocol Concerning the International Registration of Trademarks (the “Protocol”). We noted that this was a ...
Setting the Record Straight on the DMCA: UK Blogger Censored by Questionable Use of US Copyright Law 14 Aug 2013 | 11:56 pm
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is sometimes criticized for creating more problems than it solves. Section 512 of the DMCA provides a mechanism for copyright owners to demand that ...
Nobody Does it Better: Puffery or False Advertising? 6 Aug 2013 | 06:52 pm
A recent decision resolving an advertising dispute between Campbell Soup Company and Tropicana Products, Inc. reinforced what we know to be empirically true: simply claiming to be the “best” reall...
Protect Your Brands in the New Domain Name Regime: The Trademark Clearinghouse Is Open for Business 2 Aug 2013 | 09:37 pm
New generic top-level domain names (gTLDs) such as .fun, .law, and .money have been in the works for a very long time, and the first batch may be just around the corner. ICANN recently published a...
Say Good Bye to Boston Cream Thigh: Caballero Video Gives Up “Ben & Cherry’s XXX Ice Cream” Franchise 1 Aug 2013 | 08:31 pm
It turns out that the folks at Caballero Video were gentlemen after all, at least from Ben & Jerry’s perspective. Last September, the ice cream maker brought a trademark action in the Southern Distr...
A “Deal with the Devil”? Ghost Rider Creator Asserts that Contract Did not Give Marvel Perpetual Ownership of Copyright in Comic Book Character 31 Jul 2013 | 12:42 am
As we have previously observed, superheroes often take starring roles in disputes relating to copyright protection for fictional characters. This makes sense, as they frequently appear in long-lived ...
Court Finds No Digital Re-Sale Right for iTunes Music 17 Jul 2013 | 11:44 pm
One reason to buy physical books and music CDs rather than Kindle books and iTunes files is that when you own a physical copy of the book or music CD, you can lend it to friends. You could also, if y...
“Why Don’t you Marry the Girl?”: How the 1909 Copyright Act Helped Bring Down DOMA 9 Jul 2013 | 09:15 pm
When Tin Pan Alley composer B.G. “Buddy” DeSylva co-composed such 1920’s hits as California Here I Come, Sonny Boy and If You Knew Susie (and lesser-known works such as Why Don’t You Marry the Girl?)...
Second Circuit Overturns Class Certification in Google Books Copyright Challenge 2 Jul 2013 | 11:15 pm
Yesterday the Second Circuit issued its decision undoing the District Court’s certification of a plaintiff class in the long-running lawsuit claiming that the Google Books Library Project violates cop...
A Distinctive Fourth of July: Fireworks and Historical Figure Trademarks 27 Jun 2013 | 09:49 pm
Unless you are Charlemagne or Julius Caesar, you would probably have trouble registering your name as a trademark. This is because personal names are not generally considered to be inherently distinc...
