Between the stock market crash of 1929 and the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, the U.S. economy fell off a cliff. During that three-year period, five thousand banks failed and nine million bank accounts were suddenly worthless. In the calamity of the Great Depression, millions of people were thrown out of work, unemployment stood at […]
Blog – Adam Garson Law
The U.S. Supreme Court has rendered only 15 trademark opinions since 1924. So, it is always noteworthy when the Court considers a trademark case. This term, as we anticipated, the Court rendered its decision in the Jack Daniel’s trademark infringement case. We’ve been following this case since 2020 so you may recall the facts but here’s a refresher: VIP Products (“VIP”) sells, […]
USPTO Warns of Scammers Targeting Patent Owners
July 6, 2023
Patent
This month the USPTO warned of scam telephone attacks on patent owners. The scammers spoof USPTO phone numbers so the call appears to come from the USPTO. The scammers pretend to be USPTO employees and ask the patent owner to pay fees over the phone or for personal information. The USPTO warns that it does […]
Ask Dr. Copyright © About Fair Use
June 15, 2023
Ask Dr. Copyright
Dear Doc: I know that you have written a boatload of articles about “appropriation art,” where someone just grabs the copyright-protected work of another person, changes it a bit, and then sells it for a boatload of money, never giving the first artist a penny, and how this was totally legal. So how come I […]
Ask Dr. Copyright about the Public Domain
June 12, 2023
Ask Dr. Copyright, Copyright
Dear Doc: I know that in the past you have said (complained, actually) that copyrights last far too long…for the life of the author plus another 75 years (or 95 years for corporate-authored works.) That said, it was not always the case that the term was so extensive. How can I know if a book […]
Liberate TACO TUESDAY! Who Owns It Anyway?
June 8, 2023
Trademark, Uncategorized
Given the weighty domestic and foreign news of the day, trademark wars shouldn’t be capturing as much media attention as has the recent kerfuffle over the mark “TACO TUESDAY.” But it has. If you haven’t heard, Taco Bell, LeBron James, and some restaurant establishments are fighting over ownership of the trademark rights to TACO TUESDAY. […]
In many parts of the world, authors and artists also own “moral rights” in their works. Moral rights include the “right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and the right to the integrity of the work.” The “right to integrity” means that right to object to the “distortion, or […]
Patent Bullet Dodged, Thanks to The Supreme Court
June 1, 2023
Patent
A bullet dodged or the bomb-throwing Supreme Court declines to destroy the patent system… for once. The Supreme Court does not take a patent case unless it can screw up the patent system and make things worse for inventors. That’s why Your Faithful Correspondent was alarmed when the Court accepted the case of Amgen v Sanofi, which […]
Ask Dr. Copyright About “Deep Fakes”
May 29, 2023
Copyright
Dear Doc: Lately I have been reading a lot about “deep fakes”, which seem to be photos and videos that have been edited for propaganda purposes. Isn’t it against the law to do that? Why don’t the copyright police put an end to such deceptions so that the public may once again be able to […]
Paparazzi Find a New Profit Center
May 22, 2023
Copyright
Did you know that there has been a spate of lawsuits filed against celebrities for using unlicensed photographs of themselves? It’s true. The list of defendants is a Who’s Who of social media, including Deshaun Watson, Justin Bieber, Emily Ratajkowski, Lebron James, Gigi Hadid, Katy Perry, Khloe Kardashian, and the list goes on. With the […]