I’ve read the ICANN announcement on the .LA ccTLD more closely (at the urging of two readers), and they are quite correct, there is nothing to suggest that the new domain manager will operate .LA as an ‘open’ domain – that is to see allowing registrations to non-Laotions.  Accordingly, anyone with plans for movies.la, etc., will have to wait, or more to Laos.

p.s. To immediately reprimand me for the dissemination of incorrect information, please use the Yahoo Instant Messaging feature on the left tool bar.  If I am the computer and see the message notification, I will either respond to you at once, or pretend I’m not at my computer.

It’s the target of the publication’s audience, not the target of the published statement.  The Fourth Circuit holds that a court in Virginia does not have personal jurisdiction over an out-of-state publisher of a website which allegedly defamed Virginia plaintiff.  The Connecticut-based website intended its expose of the Virginia plaintiff to reach a Connecticut audience, not a Virginian one.  A link to the decision is available via How Appealing.

I think this is the most coolest thing UK IP Judge Hugh Laddie has ever done but I await word from my UK colleagues if Sir Hugh has ever topped this. 

A vendor sold scarves wtih the Arsenal football club name and indicia.  The issue turns on whether use of a team name in such way is trademark use in that sense that the team name designates the origin of the good, or is the team name and logo merely decorative use in the sense that the wearer of the scarf is merely communicating allegiance to that team.  It’s my understanding that Laddie himself tends toward the latter view (and I’ll ask UK friends to confirm/rebut that assertion).  Laddie referred the case to the ECJ (background here). Now that the ECJ has ruled that of course it’s trademark use, Laddie has refused to follow its decision, apparently relying on the fact that the ECJ made fresh findings of fact, something it had no power to do.

I guess that if Laddie was an American, he would be a state’s rights kind of guy.

Here’s a guy who is attempting to use trademark law to build up some sort of snakehead fish monopoly.  Let’s be clear – I can sell t-shirts with pictures of snakehead fish,  and I can fairly describe those t-shirts as snakehead fish t-shirts, even if you have a federal trademark registration for SNAKEHEAD for t-shirts.