Category Archives: Intellectual Property
Sad Trolls, Happy Humanity
The copyright trolls had a bad day at the beginning of September, as Judge Phyllis Hamilton of the Northern District of California found that wireless router owners do not have a duty to secure Internet connections from outsiders. The issue in AF Holdings v. Doe (Hatfield), US Dist Court, ND Cal. C12-2049 (PJH) is negligence. […]
Return of the Scammers
A few years ago, we warned about scammers who were sending official-looking notices from the “Business Filings Division,” asking for $239 for statement of information filings. It was all a scam — but I remember spending fifteen minutes looking at one, trying to verify that it wasn’t official. It seems that these scammers are back, only […]
Resist the Torrent
If you had any doubts, the New Scientist has published a report that says that most torrent downloaders have their internet protocol (“IP”) addresses logged within three hours of the download. The article wonders whether the information will be reliable enough to be admitted in a court of law, but another legitimate question is whether there are […]
Who Is Using Your Trademark? (Google II)
New Legal Developments in Keyword Advertising Go ahead: after you google yourself, google your company name. We’ll wait. Hold on – did you see that? Above your company name is an ad from someone pretending to be a reseller of your product – but you’ve never heard of them. Can they do that? Can companies […]
Viva La Small Biz!
As the son of a stockbroker, I grew up listening to talk about large, well-established businesses. IBM. Gerber. Proctor & Gamble. All successful companies, in industries that will last a long time. But all, in their way, static. IBM’s headcount of American employees has been falling for years. Most Fortune 500 companies in America that […]
Has “Google” Become Generic? (Google III)
My fellow Business of Media instructor, Eric Sinrod of Duane Morris, has a good article today about a lawsuit an Arizona entrepreneur has brought against Google, claiming that the trademark “Google” has become generic. One of the perils of a popular trademark is that when it becomes the term for the product or service itself, anyone […]
Bad News for Artists: California’s Resale Royalty Act Ruled Unconstituional
California’s Art Resale Royalty Act has been declared unconstitutional by now former Central District of California Judge Jacqueline Nguyen. Judge Nguyen issued her ruling on May 12, two days before she received her commission to become a judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She found the Resale Royalty Act to be unconstitutional because it […]
Insurance for IP Infringement Plaintiffs
Thanks to Annette Freeman, one of the world’s leading intellectual property authorities, I read an interesting article about insurance for intellectual property plaintiffs. Small companies worried about the cost of protecting their IP can buy this insurance, which will subsidize the cost of enforcing IP rights in court. The devil is in the details, of […]
From Consumer to Producer
The Economist reports that China is getting more serious about protecting intellectual property: “[T]he changes are also the result of China’s legal system getting better. Two decades ago, many judges were political or military appointees and ill-equipped to try technical cases. Thanks to better training, particularly in Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, that is now much less […]
A Few (Not Fifty!) Shades of Grey
The Supreme Court will be taking another crack at solving the grey market conundrum in a copyright infringement case that started here in California. In 2010, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Costco v. Omega, a Ninth Circuit case in which the maker of Omega watches sued Costco for legally buying Omega watches overseas at […]
