All posts by: Adam Garson

About Adam Garson

In late 2013 we wrote about a trademark dispute between the Hershey Company and Mars Inc. over whether Mars had trademark rights in the cross-section of its Snickers candy bar. Hershey opposed the mark on grounds that it was merely descriptive, de jure functional, generic, and failed to function as a trademark. The cross-section of […]

Have you ever had a great idea for an existing product? Were you dying to approach the manufacturer to suggest it? Do you think that the manufacturer would even listen to you? David Lazarus, an LA Times reporter, recently wrote about this subject.  Mr. Lazarus recounts the experience of a Dr. Ron Aryel, who approached […]

Following up on a recent post, the copyright for the Diary of Anne Frank was set to expire in 2016 and, despite the controversy, so it did. The Verge reports that a spokesperson for French parliament member Isabelle Attard, posted a copy of the diary on her blog where she writes “welcome to the light, dear Anne.”  Attard […]

In 2007, Stephanie Lenz posted a cute 29-second YouTube video of her 13-month-old son dancing and giggling to the music of Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy”. Four seconds into the video Lenz asks her baby “what do you think of the music?” And the baby bobbles up and down holding his push toy. You have to […]

In our last newsletter we wrote about Taylor Swift’s open letter to Apple, Inc. and the ensuing kerfuffle over Taylor Swift’s hypocrisy for the way she treated photographers covering her concerts. Just to recap, Swift’s letter to Apple scolded the company for not compensating artists during its customers’ 3-month free Apple Music trial. Apple, you […]

On the subject of interesting IP spats, here’s one that’s worth smiling (or frowning) over. You may know that Taylor Swift recently complained in an open letter to Apple about its using musicians’ work without compensation during the 3-month trial period of its new music streaming service (which, by the way, debuts today).  Swift wrote: […]

There are many misconceptions about posting images on websites and social media. They range from believing everything online is free-for-the-taking to assuming that if you give attribution of ownership to an image, you’re not infringing someone’s copyright. These assumptions are just plain wrong. Just ask anybody who’s received a cease and desist letter and ended […]