Who Do We Hate?

A recent e-mail exchange with our Dean raised the following question: What team is a fan of the Milwaukee Brewers supposed to hate? This was the provocative statement: “My distaste for the Cubs meant that, even if the White Sox had lost to the Brewers this weekend, I could have seen something good in the matter.”  Surely, to hate like this is to be happy forever. But who can we despise? And who will detest us?

The easy answer is the Cubs, but I have bad news. They are just not that into us. During last July’s four game debacle at Miller Park, I overheard a Cubs fan say that it would take years before he could hate us like he hates the Cardinals. Ours would be hate unrequited. Oh, sure, they might call and ridicule us when St. Louis isn’t around. We’d be just any port in a storm. 

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Why Intellectual Property is Often (Literally) the “Icing on the Cake”

barbie-cakeI often tell my students that Intellectual Property is like the “icing on the cake”—the “cake” being the structure created by a product or service to which Intellectual Property law (IP) applies.  As I will elaborate in a future post, this is one of the reasons why I like IP so much.  In other words, while the technical application of IP is undoubtedly complicated and challenging, IP is often just the last step of a production or creation process.  It is like the icing on a cake — that final layer that ties everything together.  Yet this layer is absolutely necessary to complete the work and often represents the sine qua non of why the public will buy the cake.  It determines whether a product will be successful or not.  This post, however, is not about IP theory . . . it is really about cakes, icing, and IP.

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Looking for Lakefront in Northwestern Wisconsin

lakefront2My husband and I decided that we really needed a getaway of our own, someplace where we could relax and escape the stresses of everyday life with our two pooches. So we started out on our search for the perfect little cabin on a piece of lakefront property in northwestern Wisconsin. I knew the search wouldn’t be easy, but I never expected it to be full of so many twists and turns.

The realtor we started out with was a real piece of work.  Most of the listings had not been updated with important information like, “you know all those trees that surround the cabin . . . well, they have been cut down to make way for additional lots.”  And unexpected changes to our pre-approved loan amount because of all of the “stuff” going on in the lending market soured our disposition. However, the most frustrating point of all happened half way through our search. I found out that my company would be going through a merger that most certainly will mean staffing reductions, and my husband got the news that his salary had been frozen, so that the pay increase that was to accompany his promotion was not going to happen this year.   So here we are, more stressed than ever, and torn about whether to continue on, hoping for the best, or put the whole thing on hold until conditions stabilize.

In a shaky market, buying property has it pros and cons, but so does spending a ton of money on law school. It is not hard to find a plethora of stories about layoffs in firms large and small around the country:  Law Shucks even has a layoff tracker. So with everything that is going on, my potential job loss, a combined forecasted salary of a few grand less than expected, and an uncertain legal job market, why have I never questioned my attendance in law school?

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