For almost 30 years, the NFL’s Washington Redskins were involved in litigation over their team name. Now that the owners have capitulated, they face new challenges: a swarm of trademark squatters that have scooped up rights to likely replacements. First, a little background. The Washington Redskins have been using the team name since 1933 and […]
Blog – Adam Garson Law
The Privacy Shield is Badly Cracked!
August 6, 2020
cybersecurity, Internet Law
The ongoing pandemic has not stopped progress in the world of privacy protection. This month there have been huge developments that may have profound implications for commerce between United States and the European Union (EU). We have written extensively about the European “General Data Protection Regulation” or the GDPR. This is a set of privacy regulations that govern […]
We Are Tops!
August 1, 2020
Lipton Weinberger & Husick Blog
We are pleased to announce that the five attorneys of LW&H who practice on Philadelphia’s “Main Line” have been selected by Main Line Today Magazine as among the Top Lawyers of 2020. Led by Josh Waterson, MLT’s #1 Intellectual Attorney, Larry Weinberger, Adam Garson, Robert Yarbrough and Lawrence Husick were named by the publication as Top […]
In a story that would make a screenwriter jealous, it seems that the newly-minted U.S. Space Force may have lost trademark rights in the term “Space Force” to Netflix. On June 18, 2018, President Trump announced the U.S. Space Force which came to life on December 20, 2019, with the signing of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, […]
The Patent World Steps Up
July 2, 2020
Patent
Responding to Covid-19 requires innovation, and nothing encourages innovation like a functioning patent system. The USPTO has launched a program to quickly review Covid-19 related patents and to waive the fees usually required for prioritized review of those patent applications. The average time for review of a patent application by the USPTO usually runs a bit over […]
Lanyard Toys created a popular ‘chalk pencil’ that looked like a stubby pencil but that holds chalk. Lanyard protected the invention with a design patent. Remember that a design patent protects the appearance of a product, but not what it does or how it does it.* Lanyard began selling its chalk pencils through a distributor to Toys-R-Us. […]
Copyright Law Doesn’t “Heart” New York
June 4, 2020
Copyright
Why is the famous “I [heart] New York” logo protected by trademark and not copyright? At first glance, you’d think that it’s artwork, and therefore can be protected by copyright. However, the Copyright Act protects “original works of authorship.” The “I [heart] New York” logo is merely a phrase, with the word “love” replaced by […]
Ask Dr. Copyright About What’s New
May 28, 2020
Ask Dr. Copyright
Dear Doc:I know that self-isolating and social distancing has changed what each of us does every day. What has the Doc been up to, and what’s new in intellectual property?Signed,Concerned Reader Dear CR: Don’t worry too much about the Doc. He’s been keeping busy in some interesting ways lately… First, a client of LW&H has […]
Those of you who know patents know that to be patentable an invention must not be obvious to a person who is knowledgeable in the field; that is, the invention must represent more than a trivial improvement over prior inventions. Inventors, the USPTO and the courts struggle with whether inventions are or are not ‘obvious.’ In general, […]
Last January, readers may recall our article about Georgia v. Public Resource Org Inc. (“PRO”). At the time, that case had been successfully appealed to the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS). We now have a decision. PRO involved the issue of whether the Official Code of Georgia Annotated [OCGA] was subject to copyright protection. Here were the facts: Georgia publishes and sells the […]