The Trademark Blog

The Intellectual Property Constitutency of ICANN has released this paper on sunrise mechanisms for opening new generic top level domain names.

Posted by Marty at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Paul Simon sues vendor of clock that plays 'Bridge Over Troubled Waters"

Posted by Marty at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments

Joshua Daniels: "Lost in Translation': Anime, Moral Rights, and Market Failure":

This Note examines the process by which Japanese anime series are translated, dubbed, and distributed in the United States, with a particular focus on cases in which the dubbed version has been heavily edited from the original source material. These heavily-edited dubbed versions are often commercial failures because they are rejected by many U.S. fans who are familiar with the original Japanese version of the series through the consumption of illegal "fansubbed" versions. Even though these transactions seem wasteful and thus should be avoided, their occurrence on several different occasions over the years is difficult to explain.

HT Copyright Law Twitter

This Note argues that these cases are the result of a failure of the anime licensing market to take into account the legitimate interests and expectations of U.S. fans in the integrity of the series, which ought to be considered even though the moral rights of the original creators technically might not be infringed. Drawing upon prior scholarly literature which justifies the fair use defense in copyright law as a means of curing market failures, this Note proposes the adoption of a limited fair use defense for infringing "fansubs" where the authorized dubbed version of the series has been heavily edited and there exists no other legal means by which U.S. fans may enjoy the series in its original form in the United States.

Posted by Marty at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments

ABA Journal: Trump Claims Firm Invaded Privacy By Posting Name on Website:

Donald Trump is involved in a dispute with his former firm Morrison Cohen which led to litigation in April. The firm claims he owes unapid fees, he accuses the firm of malpractice. As of August, the firm indicated on its website that it had represented him. He is now suing in New York Supreme Court for breach of NY's Civil Rights Law regarding use of his name with his consent (8/8/2008 08-110830).

Posted by Marty at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Sheboygan Women (sic) Files Landmark Case Over Web Links":

Boyden said some companies require other Web sites to get permission to link to them, but he knew of no companies, much less a government body, that have tried to enforce violations of that condition if the links didn’t infringe on a copyright or trademark.

Boyden said not all speech is protected, including links. For instance, someone might use a link to communicate a threat or violate a copyright, and that wouldn’t be protected.

The lawsuit doesn’t show how Reisinger used the link to Sheboygan police or the city’s cease-and-desist order, but Boyden said it appeared from the lawsuit to be protected speech.

Posted by Marty at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments

Knowledge@wharton: "War of the Words: Scrabulous is off Facebook, but did hasbro Win the Game?

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On the corporate side, the issue is less about money than copyright infringement and brand control. Wharton faculty note, however, that Hasbro may be doing more harm than good to its brand by going after Scrabulous. It not only risks alienating existing Scrabulous users, they say, but also misses the opportunity to capitalize on Scrabulous's success in the difficult-to-harness social networking world.

Peter Fader, co-director of the Wharton Interactive Media Initiative, believes Hasbro's action is an "incredibly bad business decision." There is no evidence the Agarwalla brothers were doing "something absolutely disparaging" to the Scrabble brand, he says. In fact, Scrabulous "has been such a fabulously good thing for the Scrabble franchise [that] Hasbro should have been celebrating."

Posted by Marty at 01:52 PM | Permalink | Comments