On Oct. 25, Epic Games sued a former employer for misappropriating a trade secret and breaching a nondisclosure agreement when he allegedly publicized information about a new season of the game before its Oct. 15 release, according to WRAL TechWire.The...
Month: October 2019
Recipe theft? Beer giant accuses another of stealing trade secrets
In March, MillerCoors sued Anheuser-Busch after AB’s prominent Bud Lite Super Bowl ad and billboard campaign highlighting that MC uses corn syrup in the brewing process for Miller Lite and Coors Light. MC accused AB of misleading the public into thinking...
Marvel, Disney sued for copyright infringement
The last decade has been kind to Marvel Studios and their parent company, Disney. Yet, long before this recent success, the Marvel brand was best known for its comics and television cartoons based on those characters in the 1980s and 1990s. One of those shows was...
Temporary restraining order issued for return of stolen domain name
Nowadays, your URL is as big a part of your business branding as are company and product names. Domain name protection is a fast-growing area of intellectual property law as the threats to domain names - which trademark often protects - are real and aggressive. A...
Guitar companies fly into dispute over instrument shapes
Some of the biggest names in rock 'n' roll history have played Gibson's distinctive Flying V guitar, including Jimi Hendrix, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, Pete Townshend of the Who, Johnny Winter, Paul Stanley of Kiss and many more. The electric instrument looks just like...
Radio station sued for $1.5 B for failing to pay to play songs
Making it as a songwriter is no easy task. Once a song becomes famous, artists rely on earnings from continued use of the songs, often on the radio. Radio stations who fail to pay artists for the use of their songs can face legal ramifications.A current lawsuit...
Trademarks: SCOTUS asked to decide if BOOKING.COM is not generic
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, known as the USPTO, filed a petition in July with the U.S. Supreme Court. The agency is asking the high court to review a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. The appeals court held that while "booking" is a...
It makes us wonder, will “Stairway to Heaven” lead to a new trial?
Since 2014, Led Zeppelin and Michael Skidmore, trustee of the trust that owns rights in a song by a deceased musician, have been fighting in court about whether Zepp's iconic "Stairway to Heaven" infringes on the copyright for "Taurus." As we described in this space...
Trademark dispute pits power couple against wedding planner
No married couple in history has sold more musical recordings than Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter and her husband Shawn Corey Carter, better known professionally as Beyoncé and Jay-Z, of course. The California residents' twins were born in the state,...
Skyline photo copyright infringement claim crashes in court
When you look at ’s skyline, you can immediately pick out the iconic Transamerica Pyramid, Salesforce Tower, 181 Fremont, California Center and other architectural landmarks. While the skyline of Indianapolis is not as well-known as ours, it is undoubtedly just...