Dear Doc: What’s new and exciting in the world of copyright law? Signed, Very Bored and Easily Amused Dear Very and Easily: Funny you should ask! There is much to report in the fascinating realm of copyright, as authors and other creative types battle the force of evil to protect their creations (and as their […]
In 2013, we wrote about the branding wars between candy bar makers. These disputes are good measure of the boundaries between 3-D trademarks that have acquired distinctiveness (registrable) and those that are functional (not registrable). In 2006, Nestlé was granted trademark rights in the “distinctive” shape of its KitKat bar in various European countries. But […]
In our April newsletter, we told you about the ‘General Data Protection Regulation’ (GDPR) that went into effect in the EU on May 25, 2018. That European regulation provides sweeping privacy requirements for anyone that does business with or collect identifying information on European residents. We opined that an American GDPR would not happen here […]
Dear Doc, I saw an advertisement in an in-flight magazine that showed the “Top Attorneys”. I’ve seen attorneys who say that they are “SuperLawyers”. I’ve even seen a listing of “America’s Top 100 High Stakes Litigators”. Can there really be so many great lawyers? Signed, Confused Dear Confused: The Doc has long been confused […]
Try rolling these out at the bar tonight. You’ll be the life of the party! Here goes: The USPTO issued its 10,000,000th patent on Tuesday June 19, 2018. That’s 10 million patents. The 10 millionth patent is owned by Raytheon and addresses LADAR range-finding technology, as used in self-driving cars. In 1997, the USPTO issued about 100,000 patents. In 2007 […]
Love ’em or hate ’em, we have the most enthusiastically activist Supreme Court in memory. The Supremes are taking on another patent case, this time relating to the on-sale patent bar. In general, when the Supreme Court decides a patent case, the law is in worse shape than it was before. As a refresher for […]