-Martha Engel, Attorney
My home state of Minnesota prides itself primarily on three things: our ability to withstand our winters, our 10,000 lakes, and our dearly beloved Prince. While we take a beating when it comes to our sports teams, all of his purple life we had Prince. Just like you might do for your
Former NFL player Shawne Merriman’s company sued the Vermont Teddy Bear Company over the trademark “Lights Out” last week.
Mr. Merriman’s use of the mark goes back to high school where he earned the nickname after knocking 4 players unconscious during the first half of a football 
game. Query whether such a nickname would arise
Recent developments have brought to the forefront the ongoing debate about what rights, if any, gamers should have or own in their online personas or in the contributions that they make to games through their gameplay contributions (i.e. is the participation by the player an act of “authorship”)?
On April 7, 2016, Mike Futter at
Nostalgia is a big seller these days. Hollywood continues to produce remakes (and remakes of remakes), politicians lament the better days of yesterday, and companies capitalize on feelings of nostalgia in order to make money. It’s not new, but it does seem to be more popular than ever. TD Ameritrade jumped on the Nostalgia Express
Fans of the Metal Gear Solid franchise received disappointing news earlier this week when Project “Shadow Moses”–an ambitious fan reboot of the original game using Unreal Engine 4–was canceled. A trailer showing the progress of the project prior to its termination is below:
This would have represented a significant improvement from the 1998
Social media impacts every facet of life and is often discussed in DuetsBlog posts. Courts are now having to address social media issues in connection with jurors. A federal judge in California is considering banning the use of social media altogether in a copyright case before him brought by Oracle America, Inc. against Google, Inc.
Three-dimensional printing technology continues to be a new frontier of creativity, advancement, and of course, legal issues. The laws surrounding 3D printing have always been a topic of concern, but the discussion took center stage over the last few weeks in an unprecedented way.
If you’re new to the idea of 3D printing, here’s a
Seeing Carlos Santana this weekend while watching the Super Bowl with friends reminded me about the recently filed copyright infringement suit against BuzzFeed. You might be thinking, “that was Chris Martin of Coldplay, not Carlos Santana, who played the Half Time show.” However, I am referring to Mr. Santana’s revamping of the theme song for
Those of you who occasionally read my posts may have noticed that video games are a hobby and interest of mine. I have posted on issues involving video games several times. See Executing Noriega, Flash in the Panama, Calling All Gamers. And as I look back on it now, it appears that
– James Mahoney, Razor’s Edge Communications
Somebody might steal my ideas.
I’ve heard this consistently over the years, including in a few conversations this past month.
One was with a woman who wants to market her art as greeting cards, but is certain that the “big” card companies would copy her ideas and elbow her