April, 2021

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New Fair Use Guidelines: the Defense Narrows

Creative Law Center

You can't just slap your style on someone else's creative work and call it transformative. Fair use guidelines are evolving. The post New Fair Use Guidelines: the Defense Narrows appeared first on Creative Law Center.

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Tips for Brainstorming a New Brand Name

Erik K Pelton

It is not easy to come up with a great new brand name, one that is bold, unique and protectable. Here are some tips: Begin with suffixes, prefixes, root words, and the message to convey to consumers. Use these parts to brainstorm possible combinations and ideas. Check for domain name availability if that is important for your business. Do a preliminary search of major search engines and USPTO TESS database.

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Synergizing Patents to Drive Innovation and Growth

Intellectual Property Law Blog

This article originally appeared in The Intellectual Property Strategist. © 2021 ALM Media LLC. Reprinted with permission. Companies have historically turned to patent pools as vehicles for achieving shared objectives. A patent pool can be formed when a group of patent holders agree to pool their patents for some purpose. For instance, members of a patent pool may agree to pool and license their patent rights to a third party in exchange for fees or royalties.

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NFT Copyright License Rights: Due Diligence is Critical.

Traverse Legal Blog

Copyright Licensing of Digital Assets Attached to NFT Sales. [Bonus: Free Open Source Copyright License for NFT sales below]. My name is Enrico Schaefer, I am a technology attorney with traverse legal PLC, and today I want to talk about nonfungible tokens or NFTs. You have been reading about them all over the news, they’re the hottest topic in tech right now, especially in the blockchain space.

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Software Composition Analysis: The New Armor for Your Cybersecurity

Speaker: Blackberry, OSS Consultants, & Revenera

Software is complex, which makes threats to the software supply chain more real every day. 64% of organizations have been impacted by a software supply chain attack and 60% of data breaches are due to unpatched software vulnerabilities. In the U.S. alone, cyber losses totaled $10.3 billion in 2022. All of these stats beg the question, “Do you know what’s in your software?

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Take-Two Interactive Gets RKO’d in Court Decision

Intellectual Property Brief

The District Court of the Southern District of Illinois rejected Take-Two Interactive’s Motion for Summary Judgement and the defenses of implied license, fair use, and de minimis use in the company’s battle against Randy Orton’s former tattoo artist.

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HOW INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW CAN SOLVE LITIGATION SURROUNDING THE HATCH-WAXMAN ACT BROUGHT BY THE COURT’S DECISION IN BRAEBURN V. FOOD & DRUG ADMINISTRATION

JIPL Online

By: Eddy Atallah. Introduction. This Blog aims to examine the Hatch-Waxman Act and one of the most significant incentives behind it, a three-year market exclusivity period for the “new clinical investigations.” Both the FDA and the courts have struggled with interpreting the exclusivity provision, among many other aspects of this inherently ambiguous regulation.

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Avoid scams: Check Your Trademark Renewal Deadlines Now

Erik K Pelton

The following is an edited transcript of my video, Why You Should Check Trademark Registration Renewal Deadlines Now. I want to share two important reasons why trademark owners should think about their renewal deadlines right now. With trademark renewal deadlines at the USPTO, there is no reminder of the expiration of the renewal period. The USPTO sends a reminder to the email of record at the beginning of the renewal period, but there is no reminder at the end of the renewal period.

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Preparing your Artist Network for New Opportunities

Art Law Journal

Developing an artist network builds camaraderie within your local community and enhances the possibility of landing new opportunities. The post Preparing your Artist Network for New Opportunities appeared first on Art Business Journal.

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Everyday IP: A brief history of candy bars

IP Blog

Though we may not all admit it, few among us can resist the appeal of a candy bar. But did you know the history of these confections and their value as Intellectual Property assets?

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Can Prisoners Sue for Patent Infringement?

Intellectual Property Brief

On August 20, 2020, the Federal Circuit held that patent owner Walter A. Tormasi lacked the capacity to sue computer company Western Digital Corp. for patent infringement because Tormasi was barred from conducting business due to his status as a New Jersey inmate. Apparently, inmates do not have the right to sue to enforce their valuable patent rights.

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IPO Diversity in Innovation Toolkit

Women and diverse employees have the technical skill and knowledge, yet their contributions are not patented at the same rate as those of their male counterparts.This toolkit can help organizations move the needle on achieving gender parity in innovation.

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IT’S THE COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT FOR ME: WHY CLAIMS AGAINST MEME CONTENT SHOULD NOT MATTER

JIPL Online

By: Taylor Bussey. INTRODUCTION. Memes utilize pop culture content, such as movies, television shows, and other various forms of media, often in a parodic way. Such uses are often methods of social commentary regarding the user’s own life, or more broadly, current events; they also often utilize copyrightable material. [i] Memes are also a form of communication that distinguishes generations.

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Nominative fair use (maybe) and Amazon

43(B)log

I've recently seen two examples of the following phenomenon: off of Amazon, an advertiser uses images of its product with another well-known product, and they do go together, but on Amazon, the advertising is different. Anyone know if there's an Amazon policy driving this? For those circuits that require the advertiser to have a good reason to refer to the trademark owner in order to justify nominative fair use, the Amazon ads would seem to show it's possible to advertise without using the other

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Five habits of successful trademark clients

Erik K Pelton

When new clients ask me about what they should do to fully protect and guard their brand, I point them to the five most common habits of a successful trademark client: They don’t delay. They file early and they file often. If they’ve got a new name, they move quickly to apply for it and start the process because they know that delay can harm the process and harm their ability to protect or use that name.

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Kobe Bryant Estate Files for Numerous Trademarks Associated with Apparel and Footwear

The IP Law Blog

If you pay much attention to sneakers, you might know that the agreement between Nike and the Bryant Estate for Nike’s line of Kobe sneakers recently expired. Although Kobe started his career with Adidas, he changed to Nike in 2003, and he stayed there for the rest of his life. Many people expected the estate to reach a deal with Nike to continue the partnership, but the deal has officially expired without any sort of agreement being reached.

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How An Art Dealer Decides

Art Law Journal

We sat down with Gallery Owner MK Semos for her take on making a living in the arts, developing an awesome gallery-program, and why she chooses to take on an artist. The post How An Art Dealer Decides appeared first on Art Business Journal.

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Foreign Works, US Rights: The 7th Circle of Copyright Hell?

Copyright Lately

Nirvana has been sued for using an illustration from a 1949 translation of Dante’s “Inferno” on band merchandise. Here’s why determining the copyright status of old foreign works can be a hellish undertaking. Move over smiley face. Welcome to the Seventh Circle of Hell. Nineties grunge-rock band Nirvana, already embroiled in a long-running legal battle against fashion company Marc Jacobs over its “happy face” t-shirt designs , now finds itself on the less happy end of a new copyright infri

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STEALING HOME: A PROPOSAL FOR RESCUING FANS AND FRANCHISES FROM THE COUNTERFEIT SPORTS APPAREL MARKET

JIPL Online

By: Tyler Dysart. While this year’s Super Bowl held in Tampa, Florida looked quite different in many aspects from previous Super Bowls due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some things remained the same: Tom Brady hoisting a Lombardi trophy and counterfeit sports merchandise flooding the largest sporting event of the year. [i] At this year’s Super Bowl alone, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that they had seized 169,000 items of counterfeit, unlicensed sports merchandise worth approxi

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Five rules for a successful supplementary protection certificate application

IP Blog

We live in a world where everything seems to move at tremendous speed, especially when biotechnology is concerned. The top companies active in the pharmaceutical sector are not immune to the expiration of certain Intellectual Property (IP) protections and are always looking for ways to enjoy an additional period of exclusivity for their patents. That is why, to benefit from at least partial compensation for the delay in the commercial exploitation of their inventions, they file requests for supp

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Great Trademarks Are Everywhere, Even in the Trash

Erik K Pelton

The following is an edited transcript of my video, Great Trademarks Are Everywhere, Even in the Trash. Over the years, I’ve found many interesting trademarks everywhere I go. I think my senses are particularly heightened when I’m traveling and outside of my normal routine around town, work and home. I was recently in New Orleans and I came across one of the best slogans I’ve ever seen.

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Do You Have a Lawyer Who Understands the Internet?

Traverse Legal Blog

Welcome to Traverse, where we discuss the hottest topics in Internet law. If you face an Internet law issue, cyber law complaint, website, or e-commerce issue, we have an Internet lawyer ready to help. The Internet is a Highly Complex Place. There are web hosting companies, affiliate marketers, e-commerce agreements, clickwrap agreements, and social media defamation.

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Why You Need to Have an Artist Newsletter

Art Law Journal

From building a subscriber list to email marketing services, our tips will get you up to speed on creating your own artist newsletter. The post Why You Need to Have an Artist Newsletter appeared first on Art Business Journal.

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Ten Top IP Tips for your SME business

Intellectual Property Office Blog

This week we're focusing on small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Every business starts with an idea, and every business owns or uses intellectual property (IP). Your IP can include your web site, business name or logo. IP assets can also include innovative technology, know how, designs and secret recipes. Here are Ten Top IP Tips for helping SMEs identify and make the most of the intellectual property assets they own.

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The Future of Invention: Should Artificial Intelligence be Considered Inventors?

Intellectual Property Brief

Continued advancements in artificial intelligence may force Congress to reevaluate what entities can be inventors.

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IP investment and the jewelry industry: an opportunity for economic growth in Africa

IP Blog

It is no secret that Africa is an important continent for the production of minerals and precious metals. Even so, despite an abundance of design creativity that is obvious to anyone who walks down a street in Johannesburg or another African city, very little jewelry made from precious metals and gemstones is manufactured there. The wealth of local expertise and craftsmanship is regrettably overlooked in favor of purely material assets.

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Beware of latest trademark scam from WTMR, LLC

Erik K Pelton

This scam showed up in a client’s mailbox this week. WTMR is back. They were going by WTRM. And now they want your scam check mailed to a PO Box in Fort Lauderdale. I am sick and tired of these scammers. And I am tired of waiting for the government to do something about them. How many businesses need to lose money, and how much attorney time needs to be lost before more is done?

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Andy Warhol Foundation Seeks Rehearing in Fair Use Case

Copyright Lately

The Andy Warhol Foundation (AWF) is asking the Second Circuit to reconsider its recent fair use ruling over Warhol’s “Prince Series,” arguing that the decision “threatens to render unlawful many of the most historically significant artistic works of the last half-century.”. As I discussed last month here on Copyright Lately , in March the Second Circuit held that Andy Warhol’s use of photos of the pop icon Prince wasn’t “transformative” and therefore didn’t qualify as fair use under the Co

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Why Businesses Should Always Have a Model Release

Art Law Journal

Steve Schlackman. Let’s start with some advice: Any graphic materials that promote something; whether products, businesses, or charitable causes, and the graphics contain images of recognizable people, — always have those people sign a model release. Of course, there are non-commercial uses that may also require a model release, (see When To Use A Model Release) but commercial uses almost […].

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How to Identify Opportunities for Improvement

IP.com

Innovative continuous improvement can help companies get (and stay) ahead of the competition. Continuously improving processes and systems reduces errors and waste while increasing productivity. At first, improvements may be focused on minimizing or eliminating major issues within your processes and systems. After these problems are solved, what comes next?

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3M, Largest American Manufacturer of N-95 Masks, Files Oppositions Against “3G” Trademark Application before U.S.P.T.O. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board

Intellectual Property Brief

Numerous controversies surrounding medical equipment suppliers and manufacturers have arisen throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, 3M, the maker of the N-95 mask, is seeking to.

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All about you - the One IPO Transformation programme

Intellectual Property Office Blog

Today, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has launched its five-year One IPO Transformation - a five-year pro gramme that will transform Intellectual Property (IP) services and enhance the value that the IPO adds to the UK economy. To mark the occasion, Debbie Cooke, Head of the IPO’s Business Change Team, outlines how developing a world leading IP system can make the UK a more attractive place to invest and drive economic growth.

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Vaccinate Your Brand with Trademark Registration

Erik K Pelton

Just like a vaccine strengthening and boosting your immune system, so does protecting your brand by registering it in the USPTO database. What else can you do to boost your brand protection in this age of the pandemic and beyond? In this episode, Erik injects his insights on how to get better trademark protection. The post Vaccinate Your Brand with Trademark Registration appeared first on Erik M Pelton & Associates, PLLC.

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How patent’s priority affects the protection of industrial designs

Garrigues Blog

Today, April 27, is International Design Day, an event, which seeks to recognize the value of design in society and business. Under the nomenclature ‘industrial designs’ , designs were considered industrial property rights in their own right under the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (PCPIP) of March 20, 1883, which laid down the ‘ de minimis principles’ applicable to our current legislative systems.

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The Basics of Insurance for Artists

Art Law Journal

Chris Reed. There are many legal aspects of running an art-related business that could be fairly characterized as less than interesting, but few topics inspire more blank stares, or glazed-over eyes, faster than insurance. Like a lot of legal topics, thinking about insurance requires that we think about negative outcomes – what happens when things go awry […].

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Diagnosis: More Alleged Infringement

BYU Copyright Blog

On April 12, 2021, MMAS Research LLC ("MMAS") and Dr. Donald E. Morisky ("Morisky") (MMAS and Morisky jointly "Plaintiffs") filed suit against the University of Massachusetts and various researchers who have conducted medical research studies at the university (collectively "Defendants"). The Plaintiffs' Complaint alleges that the Defendants violated the Plaintiff's copyright in a medical diagnostic tool called the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (the "Scale").

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Raytheon Techs. Corp. v. Gen. Electric Co., No. 20-1755 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 16, 2021).

Intellectual Property Brief

The Federal Circuit reversed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s decision to invalidate Raytheon’s turbine engine patent for obviousness based on General Electric’s reference to.

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