Blue Agave is a spiky plant found in semi-arid places in the U.S. southwest and Mexico.  Liquor consisting of spirits of which at least 51% are derived from Blue Agave found in the Jalisco state and several neighboring states in Mexico, may bear the TEQUILA appellation of origin.  PRotection of the TEQUILA appellation is included in the NAFTA agreement.

J.B. Wagoner is a distiller located in Temecula, California and created an agave distillate that he initially branded as TEMEQUILA.

Now, the Mexican Tequila Regulatory Council has protested that TEMEQUILA is confusingly similar to TEQUILA.

LA Times coverage here.

Tequila Regulatory Council website here.

Background info including NAFTA links, on Tequila here.

Background on Wagoner entitled “American-Made Tequila Takes A Shot” (the kind of title that keeps native growers up at night).

I was unable to find an image of Pee Wee Herman doing the Tequila dance which would have gone here.

 

 

The fact that someone filed a trademark application for the term PODCAST covering something that sounds like podcasting services made its way through the blogosphere this past week.  Not content to not worry, John Welch at TTABlog has put together a how-to write a Letter of Protest to the Trademark Office, which is appropriate when a third party has information that it wishes to bring to the attention of the Examining Attorney (like maybe PODCAST is a generic term).

In the meanwhile, if you were to receive a demand letter from someone asserting their exclusive rights in the term PODCAST, then you should retain a reputable trademark lawyer 😉

p.s. To emphasize John’s point, the filing a U.S. trademark application does not create rights – it reserves rights that must be perfected (in part) by examination by the Trademark Office.

p.p.s. Someone managed to register INTERNET during the mid-90’s and that caused a huge traffic jam.  I don’t think the Trademark Office would let that happen again.

The complaint in AFP v. Google is posted here.  Thank you Marquette.  Initial observations – there are 3 copyright claims, one for the headlines, one for the photos and one for the story leads.  There is also an allegation that Google removed ‘copyright management information’ (see para 73).  There is no ‘hot news misappropriation’ claim.

A few random observations: this is an interesting case to bring in the age of RSS.  AFP’s competitors, such as Reuters and Marketwatch, make their headlines available through RSS.  AFP’s cause with respect to leads alleges that the lead is the heart of the story (and therefore copying the lead constitues a substantial taking).  Do any major wire services make full text or blurbs available through RSS (I note that Reuters’ feed is a truncated first sentence)?  A headline link on Google news can actually increase traffic for the content creator.  Does reading the lead remove the need to go to the original?

This is also interesting as to whether ‘technological’ self-help will come into play.  I’ve read conflicting accounts as to whether AFP could have prevented indexing of its headlines.  Also, Google has been quoted as saying that publishers can opt out (I could not find info on how to opt out on the Google News FAQs. 

Same question that got asked re Google Auto-Link: On whom should the burden of opting out be?

IT Conversations first edition of SOUND POLICY hosted by Denise Howell (of Bag and Baggage and the project-we’re-about-to-announce fame), on everyone’s favorite tool bar function, GOOGLE AUTO-LINK.  Participants (pictured above) were novelist and IP policy advocate Cory Doctorow, RSS evangelist Robert Scoble, and me.

Remember, you do not need a pod to listen to a podcast.

NY Times:  Bard Neely released a video entitled “Wizard People, Dear Reader” which consisted of the muted video of “Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone” and his satirical soundtrack.  Warner Brothers protested.

You can recreate Mr. Neely’s version by playing your own copy of the movie with Mr. Neely’s soundtrack, at illegal-art.org.