— Jessica Gutierrez Alm, Attorney
Happy 2016! I hope everyone had a fun and festive New Year celebration.
As for me, I’ll be spending my three-day weekend tinkering with this:
Thanks to my thoughtful husband and the rapidly increasing availability and affordability of these products, I am the proud new owner of a 3-D printer.
Let’s hope not, for a variety of reasons.
In other words, let’s hope the Supreme Court straightens out the unfortunate ruling last week that the federal government is powerless to deny requests to federally register marks on grounds that they consist of or comprise racial slurs or other matter that may disparage persons.
The CAFC
This isn’t necessarily new news, but I thought it deserved a post regardless. Back in late November, Google announced a new policy of pushing back against copyright holders issuing DMCA takedown notices regarding videos which Google believes make “fair use” of copyrighted material. In Google’s words:
We are offering legal support to a handful of
When I was in London last month, I had the pleasure of meeting one of the owners of SIPSMITH® independent spirits. I had noticed the fabulous label on the gin with the swan’s neck pipe motif while dining at Berners Tavern in our hotel.
Being that trademarks are never far from my thoughts, I asked
YouTube announced that it will “offer legal support” to a small set of videos that it thinks are “some of the best examples of fair use on YouTube” and “represent clear fair uses which have been subject to DMCA [Digital Millenium Copyright Act] takedowns.”
Many people complain of abuse of the DMCA process and intimidation
– Derek Mathers, Business Development Manager, Worrell
Last week, in the 3D printing class I teach at the University of Minnesota, we discussed the legal and ethical issues surrounding the replication of physical goods and intellectual property. Typically, this conversation involves issues like the increasing availability of 3D printable gun files, replicating secret
-Wes Anderson, Attorney
George Orwell’s famous novel 1984 would describe this situation as “doubleplusungood.”
Josh Hadley, an internet radio host and a self-described “harsh film critic with no sense of subtlety or tact,” recently met the ire of Orwell’s estate when he used CafePress to create a t-shirt design with the text “1984 Is Already
About a month ago, the United States District Court for the Central District of California issued a summary judgment ruling putting a nail in the coffin of one of the most tragically comical copyright claims of all time. After years of litigation and undoubtedly hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees (perhaps more), the
Last Friday, both slanted arguments and red herrings were present during the 90 minute en banc oral argument before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) in In re Tam.
The question invited by the CAFC to be addressed in Tam is whether Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act’s prohibition on the
– Debbie Laskey, MBA
These days, as newspapers and magazines are on the wane, it seems as if anyone who can write has become an online journalist to promote his or her area of expertise. In social media lingo, the title is now known as a “blogger.”
According to Wikipedia, “A blogger is a