The Supreme Court upholds mandated commodity advertising programs such as “Beef: It’s What’s For Dinner”, “Pork: The Other White Meat” and “Got Milk?”

Johanns v. Livestock Marketing Association, 03-1164 (S. Ct. May 23, 2005).

Scotus Blog analysis here.

First Amendment Center summary of comments here.

A newspaper took a picture of a jockey during his victorious ride on  Funny Cide in the 2003 Kentucky Derby..  The photo showed a suspicious object in the jockey’s hand.  The paper showed the photo to race stewards who then questioned the jockey. The stewards heard him say “It’s a cue ring to call the outriders.”  Outriders are riders who lead racehorses on and off a track.  The stewards had never heard of a cue ring and suspected some sort of illegal device.  An investigation ensued.

Only the jockey, who speaks heavily accented English, apparently said, “It’s a Q-Ray (an ionized bracelet) to cure the arthritis.”  His wife had given him the bracelet for his arthritis.

A libel suit against the paper ensued.

Movie line free association: “Earn more sessions by sleaving.”

These people (and a bunch of others) attended John Welch’s and my blog meet-up at INTA San Diego.  I’m as surprised as you.

A guide to using RSS by Walter Mossberg of the WSJ.

Amanda from Costa Mesa writes to recommend:

1.  The Field (Irish pub), on Fifth Avenue right in the heart of the Gaslamp, is a great pub with very good food.  Try the rasher and cheese boxty.

We are pleased to announce that Glenn Mitchell has joined the firm to head up IP litigation.  Schwimmer and Associates is now the Schwimmer Mitchell Law Firm.

Glenn is active in all aspects of IP law with a particular focus on trademark, copyright and unfair competition litigation, as well as IP-oriented commercial litigation.  Glenn has over fifteen years’ experience both in the federal courts and before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, as well as litigation and arbitration involving Internet and Domain Name issues.  He has litigated major cases on behalf of entertainment and publishing companies, large retailers and major consumer products companies, among others.  Published decisions include Hormel Foods Corp. v. Jim Henson Prods., Inc., 36 U.S.P.Q.2d 1812 (S.D.N.Y. 1995), aff’d, 73 F.3d 497  (2d Cir. 1996), Henri Bendel, Inc. v. Sears, Roebuck and Co., 25 F. Supp. 2d 198, 48 U.S.P.Q.2d 1948 (S.D.N.Y. 1998) and Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. v. Leisure Time Productions, Inc., 749 F. Supp. 1243 (S.D.N.Y. 1990).

Glenn has written and spoken extensively on Trademark Law, including, most recently, the book U.S. Trade Dress Law:  A Primer for the New Millennium (2002), which is currently available from the INTA”), www.inta.org.  Glenn currently chairs INTA’s Publishing Board.

The Schwimmer Mitchell Law Firm focuses exclusively on intellectual property.  We protect, defend, and manage the brands, domain names, and other intellectual property of some of the world’s leading corporations (and some of the world’s leading start-ups, too). Our practice includes all aspects of trademark, copyright, and trade secret law, including counseling, prosecution, licensing, and litigation.

Please contact us at marty at schwimmerlegal dot com or glenn at schwimmerlegal dot com.

John Welch of the TTABlog and I invite you to meet one or both of us at an informal gathering at:

Henry’s Pub
618 Fifth Ave.
San Diego, CA 92101

Date: Tuesday, May 17th.
Time: 4:30 to 6:00 pm

We will be signing copies of our blogs.  Balloons for the kids.  Parking validated with purchase.  Quantities limited.  Has the same active ingredients as the more expensive law blogs. 

Ottomanelli Brothers hired a web design company.  An employee of the company registered the domain name NYCOTTO.COM in his own names for unknown reasons.  The design company provided DNS servers.  It went out of business and the site went dead.    The employee was nowhere to be found.  No one could re-point the name without the authorization of the missing employee.  So Ottomanelli brought a UDRP in order to get control of its domain name (and re-surrect its site).

Ottomanelli Bros. v. Rob Velez, NAF FA0503000440427 (May 2, 2005).

Practice pointer:  Companies should not allow third parties to be the admin contact for its important domain names.  Many companies use ‘role’ email addresses (domains@xyz.com) for contact addresses so that important communication (such as renewal notices and the like) are not sent to a departed employee’s un-monitored inbox.