“Whos the nuttiest: Viacom, Spike Lee, or New York State Supreme Court Justice Walter Tolub? If you answered, Hard to saytheyre all completely nuts, you are correct.” The rest of the New Yorker article on Spike TV here (the review of MONK is worthwhile also).
9th Circuit Copyright Fair Use Case
Reproducing thumbnail versions of copyrighted works constitutes fair use. There’s also remand on the previous decision in linking to such images. Kelly v. Arriba Soft, No. 00-55521 (9th Cir. July 7 2003).
LEVI'S v. ESPRIT
You haven’t lived as a trademark lawyer until you have (1) received a demand letter from Converse saying that your client infringed their distinctive ALL STAR and star logo marks; and (2) received a demand letter from Levi’s saying that your client infringed something about LEVI’S jeans. Here is an article reporting that Levi’s has
U.S. Declares Independence
Best Buy Not So Distinctive
A Court of First Instance decision upholding an OHIM decision to reject Best Buy’s Community Trademark application on the grounds that all the individual elements, the words BEST BUY and the shape and color of the mark were not distinctive. IPKAT commentary here.
Best Buy Concepts v. Office for Harmonisation of the Internal Market
Harry Potter and the Derivative Work
Good article from The Boston Globe Magazine by Tracy Mayor on fan fiction and the difficult copyright, trademark and business issues raised when fans like a work so much, they create unauthorized derivative works. Quotes from J.K. Rowling’s publishers:
“From Scholastic, her US publisher: “We are very appreciative of Ms. Rowling’s fans. We are only concerned
CTM Search To Go?
IPKAT reports that several brand owner associations (such as MARQUES) have issued a communique in support of the European Commission’s proposal to abolish the post-filing search report delivered by the Community Trademark office, OHIM. Unlike the U.S., these searches of prior filed marks are for informational purposes only and the results do not serve as
ICANN Releases Status Report
Pursuant to its agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce, ICANN must issue periodic status reports. Here is its June 30 status report.
Baked Beans and Spam v. Spam Arrest
Hormel, makers of SPAM, is suing SPAM ARREST, purveyors of spam-blocking software, according to this Seattle Times article.
Here is the text of Hormel v. Henson, wherein Hormel could not stop Henson from using Spa’am as a name for a wild boar in a Muppets movie. Here are the spam haiku archives.
More on WhenU and Gator
More on the WhenU and Gator pop-up matters via the NY Times (free registration required).