This is the question a court in the Southern District of New York will be dealing with in a recent lawsuit filed against Destiny Hope, a/k/a Miley Cyrus and others. Does Miley’s chart topping 2013 hit song “We Can’t Stop” infringe on a song written by Michael May?
Jamaican songwriter and deejay Michael May goes
— Jessica Gutierrez Alm, Attorney
New ideas, creations, and business ventures are often the product of collaboration. If lawyers had their way, a written agreement would precede every creative collaboration. Of course, this is not the case. Collaborators often do not seek advice of counsel, or see the need for an agreement, until after
Sandwiched between 90 degree days in a Minnesota summer, the idea of Halloween wasn’t on my radar – until I learned about the latest dispute between candy giants Mars and Hershey’s.
Mars and its subsidiary own many well-known candy brands, including M&Ms, Snickers, Twix, Skittles, Life Savers, and others. Not to be outdone, Hershey
-Martha Engel, Attorney
I laughed when I saw yesterday’s Adweek article about Heinz adopting Don Draper’s “Pass the Heinz” pitch from the hit show “Mad Men.” Given the lackluster creativity observed from the Super Bowl ads, have we actually reached a point where a creative says “hey remember that Mad Men episode? let’s just
— Jessica Gutierrez Alm, Attorney
This is a common question among many new inventors. To be patentable, an invention must be novel and non-obvious in view of the “prior art.” Prior art includes prior filed patents, patent applications, and other public materials. A patententability search, or prior art search, can give the inventor an idea
-Martha Engel, Attorney
While on my flight back from speaking on trademarks & the alcohol industry at this year’s CiderCon, I listened to a fascinating TedTalks podcast on advancements in artificial intelligence that you can find here. Some of the examples of the progress made in robots included the concept of open-ended, non-linear
Earlier this month, Wawa, an East Coast convenience store chain, demonstrated it is not gaga over a single location food mart (copy of complaint linked here), called Dawa:
As Dawa has vowed to defend its name, will this case come down to a battle over the meanings of the marks? Do
-Martha Engel, Attorney
“Forties at 4” was a time-honored Friday tradition among my engineering classmates in college. After our last class, several of them would purchase Miller (if we could find it in a 40 oz) or Old English or some other malt liquor that provided the most bang for the buck. Cracking one open
Seeing this Caribou Coffee skyway billboard was a good reminder to me of how much we hear about the importance of transparency in our relationships, including those with brands we love:
It appears that the prevalence of society’s use of the word “transparency” may be at an all time high, where the
— Jessica Gutierrez Alm, Attorney
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)—a favored talking point among our presidential hopefuls—is an international trade agreement between twelve nations. The agreement was signed earlier this year, but is not yet ratified in most member countries including the United States. Negotiations took place over seven years and resulted in thirty dense