Category Archives: Intellectual Property
Star-Struck, or Struck Dumb?
by Andrew Jacobson Comedian Nathan Fielder has been revealed as the brains behind the “Dumb Starbucks” shop that popped up without fanfare (or a health permit) on a Friday afternoon. It disappeared the next Monday. While the joke seemed to be on the people who waited in line for three hours for bad coffee and Vons-bought […]
Obama’s One Sentence on Patent Reform –
By Sharon Adams After Passing the Most Sweeping Patent Law Reform in Decades, President Obama’s State Of the Union speech briefly mentioned patent law. “And let’s pass a patent reform bill that allows our businesses to stay focused on innovation, not costly and needless litigation.” This single sentence appeared to be dropped into the middle […]
Towersquatting (and Contributory Cybersquatting)
by Andrew Jacobson The cybersquatter is a parasite that benefits from an internet user’s confusion who thinks that they are accessing a popular website, when they really get something else. The US banned cybersquatting in 1999’s Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (“ACPA”) and is codified at 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d). Malaysia’s oil company, Petronas, discovered a […]
YogaGlo Patent Loses Its Shine
By: Sharon Adams YogaGlo Patent # 8,605,152, Figure 1 INTRODUCTION There has been much controversy in the yoga community about the recent issuance of a patent to YogaGlo. The YogaGlo patent contains claims for videoing a yoga instructor teaching students, with an unobstructed line of sight from video camera to the instructor. There are so […]
What Could Go Wrong With a Wooden Horse?
One of the major justifications small business owners have for not protecting their information more carefully is “who would want our information? We’re just a small firm that doesn’t handle anything important for anybody.” A recent security breach reveals the risks. A small software service that provides back-end software solutions for car-hire services had its […]
California’s New LLC Law and You
by: Daniel E Gwozdz Daniel E Gwozdz is a 2012 graduate of Gonzaga School of Law and the newest attorney at Bay Oak Law. If the title above grabbed your attention, chances are that you are either a member of an Limited Liability Company or are interested in forming one. Limited Liability Companies, or LLCs, are […]
Now That’s a Hallmark Moment
When you think of Hallmark, you often think of the word “giving.” In a recent case, though, Hallmark will be doing the getting: a repayment of a substantial severance package by a former executive who later used Hallmark’s trade secrets to compete against it. As the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeal explained in Hallmark Cards, […]
When Being The Best Is Not Enough . . .
Dunkin’ Donuts has found the hard way that being the self-styled best isn’t good enough. The United States Patent & Trademark Office has refused to register its slogan “Best Coffee in America,” as being merely descriptive and not having a secondary meaning to consumers. Dunkin’s prime claim to trademark registration is that the slogan became distinctive over the […]
More Online Services Fall Under the COPPA Cabana
Online content providers – including websites and apps – need to add something to their 2013 To-Do list. Beginning July 1st, the Federal Trade Commission’s new rules under the Child Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) will apply covering more online services. While the new rules have been criticized as “a mess,” they still apply. Most […]
Limits on Civil Torture
It is easy to feel smug when we look back on our ancestors 1000 years ago. They had donkeys — we have 400 horsepower, 4 wheel drive vehicles. They had the Black Death — we have vaccines for all types of illness, even cancer. For a justice system, they had trial by ordeal — we […]
