Happy Halloween from DuetsBlog! I write today regarding a scary subject: unregistered intellectual property. The horror! Ask any IP professional about registration, and you’re likely to hear that registration is one of the most important steps in protecting IP. Whether it is a patent, trademark, or copyright, registering IP often provides the IP owner
— Jessica Gutierrez Alm, Attorney
Twitter, the social media giant, is being sued by its internet cousin, TWiT. TWiT, which initially stood for This Week in Tech, is a netcast network providing audio and video tech-related content. TWiT owns the registered service mark TWIT for visual and audio entertainment performances.
According to the
Tunnel View – Photo by David Iliff. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0
As the saying goes, possession is nine-tenths of the law. That other tenth can be pretty complicated, depending on what you’re “possessing.” When you’re arguing with an older brother over who “possesses” the remote control, it’s an open and shut case. But what about “possession”
– Derek Allen, Attorney –
Unless you’re inflicted with the most severe kind of equinophobia, you probably don’t get much satisfaction from seeing a dead horse get beat. But since the horse that is the NCAA’s current player compensation system appears to still have some life in it, I have to admit I’m sort of
There was some news yesterday that Will.I.am of the Black Eyed Peas “sued” Pharrell Williams, one of my favorite producers and member of N.E.R.D. and The Neptunes, over the I AM OTHER brand. If you have never heard of N.E.R.D. and are looking for some new music, seriously check out N.E.R.D.’s first album – “In
There was a time when a certain kind of small business owner — strapped for cash — with a meager promotional budget, easily could be tempted to adopt a “clever” name, as a “short-cut,” to “play off” a well-known, iconic brand, but in the end, he or she probably was convinced by counsel that doing
–Susan Perera, Attorney
Dusting off the archives, you may remember a 2009 blog post by Tiffany about a trademark infringement lawsuit initiated by Levi Strauss against Abercrombie & Fitch over the back pocket design on the respective parties’ jeans.
In that case the jury determined that the pocket designs, shown below, were not confusingly similar;
Another interesting trademark case was filed last Thursday in Minnesota federal district court, captioned Rolex Watch U.S.A., Inc. v. Associated Partnership Ltd., d/b/a Rollx Vans and d/b/a www.RollxVans.com. Here is a pdf of the Complaint and the attached Exhibit.
The crowned plaintiff really needs no introduction. On the other hand, the
–Susan Perera, Attorney
Like most 20-somethings who went to college during the rise of this social media monster, I am quite familiar with Facebook. However, I wasn’t aware of the website Lamebook until the current legal dispute began. Lamebook, a self-proclaimed, “humor blog” was designed to allow people to share the most “ridiculous” things
—Joy Newborg, Attorney
New ideas are the lifeblood of Hollywood and television, as executives are scrounging to find the next wildly popular Avatar or “Friends.” However, there is a little evil known around the industry as idea theft, where a person believes that their idea has been used but they were not given