John Welch blogs about a precedental TTAB case holding that Section 44 of the Lanham Act doesn’t create a ‘famous marks’ cause of action here. He reproduces an email I sent to the INTA listserv, suggesting that maybe the Us should amend its act to include a cause of action that US companies have utilized abroad, specifically a cause of action relating to the intentional adoption of a mark that is famous to the US public, even if said mark is not in use in the US.

Virtual World News: Taser Sues Linden:

Taser International has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Linden Lab, reports Bloomberg, claiming the publisher is illegitimately selling virtual goods based on the Taser stun guns. the Second Life online virtual world creator over claims it sells unauthorized virtual versions of its stun guns.

Trademark Blog Virtual World archives here.

Scotsman: Chinese Offer Hope Of Action on Fake Scotch.

The Scotch Whisky Association has been campaigning for increased protection in China for some time. The whisky market for Scotch is worth £44 million a year to Scottish distillers and it is one of the fastest-growing in the world.
However, producers have been alarmed by the number of imitation Scotch brands circulating in China. About 200 fake products have been found in the past two years alone.

I mean, for sure, it seems to be one of those situations where no one would have ever learned of the sites GODLMANSACHS666.COM and GOLDMANSACHS13.COM, but for the demand letter, but the letter itself doesn’t have the misplaced certitude, the overblown rhetoric, the baseless imputation of evil to the recipient, and over-all lack of self-awareness, that marks the truly dumb demand letter.
So I have to disagree with Marco here. I’ve read dumber. But Marco raises interesting points on ‘client control,’ a term that I don’t like, as (1) it is not what our job is; and (2) it can’t be done. We’re in the effective guidance business. We identify options and predict outcomes of selecting those options.
So what would you have done?
BTW, see Lamparello v. Falwell; and Bosley Medical v Kremer.

BusinessInsider: CNN Acquires CNNBRK Twitter Account:

Hard to believe, but the CNN Twitter account racing Ashton Kutcher to 1 million subscribers wasn’t even under CNN’s (TWX) control until recently.
CNN has taken control of the @cnnbrkaccount — and its 944,000 followers — we’ve heard. We don’t know the transaction details, and are waiting to hear back from CNN to confirm the deal and any details

More details from TechCrunch.

UBid has an incontestable registration in uBid. It has sued domain name registrat GoDaddy for various activities monetizing domain names that include the strings UBID and YOUBID. The meat of the allegations are in paras 22-26.
Complaint Ubid v Godaddy