What Does Wiki Say About Your Brand?
Something for trademark lawyers to do when its slow: search Wikipedia to see what it says about your brands. One reason has to do with preventing genericide (I suspect that the lawyers for THERMOS and PING PONG have been in conact with the folk at Wiki.
There’s also the corporate image thing. Pick any controversial corporation and check out the listing.
Discussions about the Wiki editing process here and here.
UPDATE: Wikipedia will require registrations to post – discussion here.
Hasbro Defends Irkutsk
Via Slashdot, a demand letter sent to the distributor of a game based on RISK, using Google map:
December 1, 2005
By FedEx and Email
SPAM on spam
Position statement from Hormel, owner of the SPAM trademark, discussing use of ‘spam’ for un-solicited commercial email.’ Statement properly includes attribution to Monty Python.
The Oldest Trademark In Relation To Recorded Sound
. . . is COLUMBIA RECORDS, according to Wiki.
Yale Search Engine Symposium Papers
43(B)log – False Advertising Law Blog
Rebecca Tushnet, Goergetown Law Professor and comics aficionado, has re-positioned her blog as 43(b)log – False Advertising and More.
Global Fake Drug Problem
Article from The American Prospect entitled ‘Death By Dilution,’ on the world counterfeit drug market. The FDA estimates that 10% of the medicine in the world is counterfeit; others estimate that the figure is 50% in some countries.
Review of The Third Man (one of my favorite thrillers) here.
Prof. Patry on Copyright Deposits and Trade Secrets
Further to our prior conversation about trade secret issues raised by IP filings, we note that Prof. Patry has posted on Copyright Deposits and Trade Secret Protection.
Single Digit Domain Names
Back in 1993, IANA set aside the registration of single-digit domain names (six were floating around – IdeaLab used to own Z.COM, for example). Now ICANN is supposed to discuss whether such names should be released. Presumably some of these names would be quite valuable.
Some companies are making (possibly) premptory trademark filings. Yahoo has filed a trademark application for Y.COM. Overstock has filed for O.COM. A company named GQXZP2 (represented by Bracewell & Guiliani) has filed several ‘single digit.com’ applications, including A.COM.
Hmm.