Lawyers and legislators are fond of acronyms. It is rare that a significant bill in Congress does not have one of these mnemonics. Everyone knows of the USA PATRIOT Act, but few realize that it is actually the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act. One of…
Category Archives: Intellectual Property Litigation
Trademark Dilution Webinar
Here is the recording of the February 6, 2013 webinar entitled “Trademark Dilution.” How do you protect famous marks from uses which tarnish or otherwise harm them? Trademark Dilution claims help to protect famous marks from other uses which tend to harm their uniqueness. In this webinar we will discuss the concept and some cases…
E-Book Publishing Leads to Clash Between Digital Giants
When Amazon introduced the Kindle in 2007, I was of the opinion that e-books would never catch on. Why would anyone want to spoil the enjoyment of reading a good book by doing it on an odd looking gray toned screen? Certainly the tactile and olfactory joy of opening the fresh new pages of The…
Online Defamation Webinar Recording
Here is the recording of the September 5, 2012 webinar in the Davis McGrath LLC IP Webinar Series on “Online Defamation.” What can you do when someone disparages you or your business online? In this webinar, we discuss what actions can be taken to handle a case of online defamation. Come learn from Davis McGrath…
7th Circuit Refines Its Website Jurisdiction Analysis
Last month I wrote about the concern that Americans don’t know much about history. This month, we shift our focus to geography, since Bulgaria plays a role in an important case from the Seventh Circuit. So I asked a lot of smart people – lawyers, professors, my children – to name two countries that border…
Sausage Maker’s Trade Secret Settlement Was Not a Capital Gain
I am about to launch into a foolish endeavor: writing an article about tax law. I hate tax law. I hate doing my taxes every April. I’m not a tax lawyer and never will be. I admire tax lawyers — their creativity, their ingenuity, their ability to master the plethora of ever-changing tax code provisions…
First Amendment Bars Law Curbing Violent Video Games
I recently had the good fortune to audit a short course entitled “The First Amendment Confronts New Technology,” taught by Professor Michael Seng of the John Marshall Law School. The irony is that the course was being presented in China, a country not known as a wellspring of free expression. The course was taught to…
Copyright Concerns Give Moviemaker a “Hangover”
Major movie studios are usually exceedingly careful about “clearing” the content of their films before advertising and releasing the film. Legions of lawyers and other employees make sure the studio acquires all the necessary permissions to use the copyrighted material of others before it appears in the movie. Sometimes an item falls through the cracks,…
Hall of Fame Cybersquatters End Up In Court
If there were a Hall of Fame for cybersquatters, John Zuccarini would be the Babe Ruth of that infamous pantheon. William Purdy might be the Willie Mays or Ty Cobb. Brian Wick, the Hank Aaron of the group, liked going after the names of large law firms. Dennis Toeppen, one of the earliest stars, would…
Meet John Doe – Copyright Defendant
Meet John Doe. I’m not referring to Gary Cooper, star of the 1941 Frank Capra film of that name. In the world of modern copyright, the name John Doe has taken on entirely new dimension. As thousands have come to learn in recent months, the new John Doe is a defendant in a copyright infringement…