Nov

16

Redskins Prevail in Offensive Trademark Case

Posted by: J. Gordon Hylton | November 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Earlier today (Nov. 16) the United States Supreme Court denied cert. in the case of Harjo v. Pro-Football, Inc., bringing to a close, at least for the moment, litigation concerning the legality of the Washington NFL team’s registration of its “Redskins” trademark. The decision not to hear the case was announced without comment.
In 1992, Native-American [...]

Oct

17

The Obama “Hope” Poster Case — Whoa!

Posted by: Bruce E. Boyden | October 17, 2009 | 2 Comments

(This is the 8th in a series of posts on Fairey v. Associated Press. See below for other posts in the series.)
I’ve been too busy to blog recently about the Hope poster case, but aside from the AP’s answer to Garcia’s claims of ownership, not much has happened. And frankly, given my schedule, I [...]

Oct

16

Does Larry Jansen Belong in the Right of Publicity Hall of Fame?

Posted by: J. Gordon Hylton | October 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Former major league pitcher Larry Jansen died this week at age 89.  Although he was one of the leading pitchers in the National League in the 1950’s, he has been all but forgotten by the American public.
Students of sports history primarily remember him as the winning pitcher in one of the most famous games in [...]

Oct

9

Our Long National Patent Nightmare is Over? Tafas v. Kappos and the New Patent Administrative State

Posted by: Kali N. Murray | October 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment

The citizenry of the United States awoke to shocking news this morning . . . the United States Patent and Trademark Office has rescinded its controversial continuation application rules package (what was that about a Nobel Peace Prize?).  The link to the press release is here.
These controversial rules—which sought to limit the number of continuation [...]

Sep

14

Another Win for Veoh

Posted by: Bruce E. Boyden | September 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment

On Friday, the district court in UMG v. Veoh granted summary judgement in favor of Veoh. Decision here, courtesy of Copyrights & Campaigns. UMG, a record label, had sued Veoh, a site hosting user-posted videos, claiming infringement of its music videos. UMG is the second decision to come down on the issue of the responsibility [...]

Sep

14

More on Literary Characters and Copyright Law

Posted by: Edward A. Fallone | September 14, 2009 | 1 Comment

This blog has seen an extended discussion on the topic of literary characters and copyright law.  It began with my post here, discussing the ongoing court case brought by J.D. Salinger over the unauthorized use of his Holden Caulfield character from The Catcher in the Rye, (Salinger v. Colting) and using a comparison to the [...]

Aug

21

IP Geeks Rejoice: 13 Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review (2009) is Here

Posted by: Kali N. Murray | August 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment

The thirteenth volume of the Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review (Summer Edition 2009) has recently been published and is now available.   Our outgoing editor-in-chief, Melissa Benko and her excellent board have done an outstanding job once again.
Highlights of the issue include:
* Jessica Litman’s wonderful and innovative Nies lecture on current copyright reform;
*  Interesting articles by [...]

Aug

19

Harry Potter and the Unauthorized Sequel

Posted by: Bruce E. Boyden | August 19, 2009 | 3 Comments

I don’t mean to clog up our blog with a debate over copyright law, but Gordon’s contribution to the debate Ed and I were having on derivative works is fantastic, and I’d like to do it justice with a long-ish reply. I’m familiar with Looking Backward, having read it in grad school, but I was [...]

Aug

18

Looking Backward and the Fallone-Boyden Debate

Posted by: J. Gordon Hylton | August 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment

The post-publication history of Edward Bellamy’s 1888 utopian novel Looking Backward, 2000-1887 speaks to the issue at the core of the Fallone-Boyden debate.  My two colleagues disagree over the desirability of copyright protection for literary characters and the proper resolution of the recent legal action filed by J. D. Salinger against the Swedish author of [...]

Aug

17

The Windmill’s Reply

Posted by: Bruce E. Boyden | August 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Ed Fallone’s fascinating post below on the Catcher in the Rye suit, now being briefed in the Second Circuit, is worth reading. I was particularly interested in Ed’s discussion of Cervantes’s criticism of an unauthorized sequel to Don Quixote. Copyright scholarship occasionally mentions that Cervantes rushed Part II of Don Quixote into print because of [...]

Aug

16

Caufield Meets Quixote

Posted by: Edward A. Fallone | August 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Last Thursday, a brief was filed with the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in the case of Salinger v. Colting.  This lawsuit, alleging breach of copyright, has received a great deal of attention because the plaintiff is the reclusive author J.D. Salinger.  He sued Swedish author Fredrik Colting in New York over [...]

Jul

28

Parties Ask for Stay in Tafas v. Doll

Posted by: Eric Lalor | July 28, 2009 | 1 Comment

The parties in the Tafas v. Doll have filed a “Joint Consent Motion for a Stay of En Banc Proceedings.”  As patent practitioners are painfully aware, Tafas stemmed from the USPTO’s August 21, 2007, new patent-prosecution rules and regulations. The “new regulations” challenged were Rules 75, 78, 114, and 265.  Rule 75 established the number of [...]

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