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In September, the New York Personal Injury Blog reported on a court decision in which a federal judge held that a 2005 federal law that abolished vicarious liability for car renting and leasing companies. It illustrated the article with the logos of Hertz and Avis.
Eric Turkewitz, author of the blog, now reports that Fred Grumman, Associate General Counsel of Avis, posted the following comment on the blog:
Mr. Turkewitz: This particular piece has just been brought to my attention.
We have the greatest respect for your right to express your opinions on your blog, but that does not include the right to use Avis’ trademark as you have done in this particular piece.
Understandably, trademark law is not within your area of expertise. Therefore, we trust that this was done out of ignorance and not based on an intent to misuse our mark to the benefit of your personal injury practice.
We ask that you remove it immediately and refrain from any similar use in the future.
Thank you for you prompt attention to this request.
Fred Grumman
Associate General Counsel
Avis Budget Group, Inc.

Press Release: Nuvision Files Lawsuit Against Panasonic For Trademark Infringement:
NuVision® U.S. Inc., a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based manufacturer of high performance 1080p LED DLP and Deep Black™ LCD HDTV displays, announced today that it has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona against Panasonic Corp. of North America seeking to prevent Panasonic from infringing upon and deliberately copying and using NuVision’s registered “High Definition Living” trademark.

Wired.com: “I Was a Hacker for the MPAA“:
The MPAA’s use of Anderson is one of a series of controversies the movie industry is confronting in its zero-tolerance war on piracy. MediaDefender, a California company that tracks and disrupts file sharing of movies and music, was reported to Swedish authorities last month by The Pirate Bay, after an internet leak revealed the extent to which MediaDefender pollutes file-sharing services with fake, decoy content. And an executive at a national theater chain successfully pressed New Jersey authorities in August to prosecute a teenager for filming 20 seconds of a movie at a theater to show to her little brother later.
With regard to allegtions that copyright owners ‘pollute file-sharing services with fake, decopy content’, I have always been concerned to what extent an IP owner can commit what might possibly be tortious behavior towards an entity whose activites may be wholly or partly lawful with regard to that IP owner.

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The rifle-scope crosshairs so obvious in the old Blackwater logo have been reduced to a set of horizontal elipses that bracket, but no longer enclose, the paw print, which has also changed to more closely resemble an actual bear-paw imprint. The original Blackwater logo had thick white serif lettering draped over the crosshairs on a menacing black field. The new logo separates the image and the letters, which now appear in buttoned-down sans-serif black and slightly italicized on a white field.
Though the red elipses in the new logo retain the horizontal crosshairs, the overall look is far less “kick your butt” and much more “quarterly report,” some branding experts said. The new logo, which began to appear on some Blackwater material in late July, may also speak volumes about the company’s desire to begin its second decade on a more anodyne note.
NY Times: “Blackwater Softens Its Logo From Macho to Corporate.”

In the old pay-per-impression days, John Zuccarini reportedly made $1 million a year registering typo-sites such as bobthebiulder.com and teltubbies.com. I brought a UDRP against him, maybe you did too. It is thought that the Truth in Domains Act was targeted at Zuccarini, who was the first person ever arrested under it, and was imprisoned for 14 months. I can’t find any report that anyone else was ever arrested under the Act. Which may speak well of its deterrent effect.
However a prison sentence may not have deterred Zuccarini. According to this article, the FTC alleges that he is still engaging in a ‘domain name registration scam’ utilizing ‘affiliate marketing programs.’ No specific names or sites are cited.
I am asked: what is pay-per-impression. This refers to one of the earlier, failed, models of internet advertising, where the website owner was paid for the number of times that its site was viewed. Because the site hosting the ad was paid regardless of whether the person viewing the ad had any interest in the ad or not, the model encouraged misdirected traffic.