We recently told readers about a lawsuit filed by Car-Freshner Corporation -- the owner of the trademark for the iconic tree-shaped car air fresheners -- against Bob Ross Inc., called BRI, and its merchandiser for selling air fresheners for vehicles also in the shape...
Year: 2019
NCAA has multiple trademarks associated with Final Four tourney
Trademarks are not just important for commercial success. It is also vital for some nonprofit organizations to protect their branding in furtherance of their charitable missions.It may surprise some readers to learn that the National Collegiate Athletic Association,...
To be a trade secret, its owner must take steps to protect it
At , in , we represent a variety of clients in trade secret matters. We regularly talk about trade secret issues in this space and today we take note of a recent Illinois case that provides an interesting analysis of the requirement that to...
Artificial intelligence generates real copyright issues
When lawmakers passed the first federal copyright law in 1790 to protect rights in maps, charts and books, they could hardly have conceived of an issue under consideration today: Whether the creations generated by computers using artificial intelligence...
Fourth Estate: SCOTUS says registration approach is correct one
The verdict is finally in. Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court released its opinion in Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corporation v. Wall-Street.com, LLC. The court held that to bring a copyright infringement lawsuit under the federal Copyright Act, the Register...
Court greenlights mashup of Seuss and Star Trek as fair use
On March 12, a U.S. District Court in the Southern District of California released an opinion that discusses at length the concept of fair use of a copyrighted work. We have previously written about fair use -- a legal doctrine that allows limited uses of copyrighted...
Can’t trademark your slogan? That’s a pile of covfefe!
When you read this title, with whom or what did you associate "covfefe"? Of course, this is the nonsensical word President Trump used in a tweet, possibly when he was tired and in loose control of his typing fingers. Now people associate it with his persona and...
Court lays out building blocks of trademark law
In October 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit released an opinion in a trademark dispute between Converse and certain shoe competitors over Converse's Chuck Taylor All Star sneaker, sold since 1932 and registered as a design trademark in 2013. The...
Can a company claim its diversity data is a trade secret?
We have talked about trade secrets, a type of intellectual property that has no government process of registration like copyrights or trademarks. Yet, trade secrets can be highly valuable and important to the success of a business. A trade secret is specific...
US Copyright Office rulings on requests for dance copyrights
We recently posted a blog about three lawsuits alleging that the owner of Fortnite, the popular video game, violated copyrights in three dances reproduced in the game without permission or credit. As we described, dance choreography can be registered with the U.S....