Today’s Lesson: Don’t Be a %$*!# A little bit of legal knowledge can be a most troublesome thing. Readers of The IP Breakdown know that implied copyright licenses1As opposed to express copyright licenses, where the terms of the license—the license’s terms and...
Last week, two different U.S. courts took action in cases involving the use of trademarks outside the borders of the United States, and if you aren’t confused you don’t understand territoriality. The big news last Monday was the Supreme Court’s refusal to...
Swimming with the Shark Tank If you’re a fan of Shark Tank, one of the more interesting pitches was by Rachel Zietz in 2016, a (then) fifteen-year old lacrosse player and entrepreneur. She said she was tired of the lousy lacrosse equipment she had been buying from the...
In honor of Valentine’s Day, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board has offered us honey. You know, that stuff with which you catch more flies. The lines between descriptive and suggestive marks has never been easy to define. Bitvoyant, a Virginia-based software...
A Meditation on Innovation on the Occasion of the Death of S. Newman Darby, Tinkerer, Hobbyist & Inventor If you enjoy windsurfing, you might raise one to S. Newman Darby, who essentially invented it and who passed away last month. For a long time, not very many...
You need a trademark lawyer. No, really. Even if you have a corporate lawyer. No, especially if you have a corporate lawyer. Do not let your corporate lawyer do your trademark lawyer’s work. Would you let your dentist do your appendectomy? The following is a story...
