March 10, 2010
Lindsay Lohan Publicly Admits Milk Addiction
Earlier this week, Lindsay Lohan filed a $100 million suit against online financial services company, E-Trade. In her complain (you can read it here), Ms. Lohan accuses E-Trade of appropriating her likeness in its Super Bowl ad, wherein the spokesbaby’s girlfriend accuses him of not calling her because he was with “that milkaholic, Lindsay.”
March 7, 2010
Patent Reform Act Moving Forward
Well, I’ve heard this one before – the Patent Reform Act is moving forward. This is something that has been, allegedly, moving forward for years. The article that I read noted that patent reform has been introduced in each of the last three Congresses. Does this one have a chance of passing? There’s really no telling.
Senators Leahy and Hatch have been big proponents of patent reform over the years. I appreciate that they realize the importance of intellectual property. Over the years, the various versions of the patent reform act have attempted to address issues such as moving to a “first to file” system, damages, and third party comments on pending patent applications. This proposed bill addresses those issues, as well as others allowing the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to set fees in an attempt to address the backlog problem.
March 4, 2010
An Open Letter to Television Writers and Producers re:Civilian Consultants
Dear Television Writers and Producers:
Let me start off by saying that I am a huge fan of television and that I particularly enjoy the pervasive one-hour episodic drama genre. Cop and lawyer shows are my absolute favorite, despite the fact that they often present embellishments and minor procedural inaccuracies. One of the only things that a legal education is guaranteed to do is suck all of the enjoyment out of watching courtroom shows that play it fast and loose with the formalities of litigation, but I’ve learned to ignore most of the discomfort that comes from watching a make-believe prosecutor present character evidence in his case-in-chief. I hardly cringe anymore when I hear scripted dialog about “robbing” a house or “murdering” an animal. I am writing today, however, to tell you of a related faux pas that I haven’t been able to ignore.
“Are you saying that our show is unoriginal?”
As I’m sure you are aware, a subclass of the traditional police show has been popping up with greater frequency in recent years. The basic premise for these shows is this: A civilian “consultant” is brought in by a law enforcement agency, based on some enhanced knowledge or skill possessed by said civilian, thereby magically improving the agency’s crime solving abilities. Amongst this subclass, I am a religious viewer of Psych, The Mentalist, Castle, White Collar, Fringe, and Bones (I can’t stand this one, to be honest, but it’s my wife’s favorite), to name a few. With varying degrees of success, each of these programs attempts to present a compelling dynamic between straight-laced cops and one or more outside-the-box thinkers, who presumably aren’t bound by the paradigm that you’re typical “G-man” occupies. It’s a classic odd couple arrangement – rambunctious corner cutter plays off of an endearing straight man. My issue lies with one particular outside-the-box solution that is floated again and again on these shows.
February 22, 2010
Bill Gates Calls for Innovation
In a recent article posted by Bill Gates, he noted that in order to reach certain goals for reduction of CO2, insulation is not the answer, but rather through innovation. The goals referenced by Mr. Gates include a 30% reduction in CO2 by 2025 and an 80% reduction in CO2 by 2050. As Mr. Gates points out, the 2050 goal is likely not attainable – not without major innovation.
The issue, as I see it, is that this is a global goal. It is tough to have a global goal, however, if every country is not on board. If that is the case, then we must look to the law of averages. If only one of the major CO2 producing nations is not completely on board, then there is no way that the goal can really be attained. That is, not unless the remaining countries take their CO2 production down to nearly 0%. Unfortunately, there are some greenhouse gas emissions that we just cannot stop. As noted in the article, this may include, for example, the decaying process, making fertilizer, etc. So what does that mean for the USA? I believe it means a major shift in our transportation and energy production industry. It means that we will need a complete shift away from the archaic idea of burning fuel, i.e., petroleum, coal and even natural gas, in order to generate power.
February 17, 2010
IOC Uses DMCA to Suppress Luge Accident Video
The opening day of the 2010 Winter Olympics was marked with tragedy when 21-year-old Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili, was involved in a fatal crash during a training run. The horrific event dampened the spirit of the international competition and colored the mood at the opening ceremonies later that night. As anyone would expect, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) sprung into action, responding to the accident with a multi-point plan:
February 4, 2010
Honda Sued for Trying to Save the Earth!
Honda can probably be considered one of the leaders in making more fuel efficient vehicles. They have always put out some pretty good vehicles, and now, with hybrid technologies, they have been manufacturing some vehicles that get between 40 and 45 miles per gallon. If I were Honda, I would want to boast about that too. Apparently, Honda started an ad campaign that offended Save the Earth Enterprises, an environmental group based here in the U.S. Save The Earth Enterprises sued Honda for trademark infringement over their recent ad campaign.
At first, I could not wrap my brain around this issue. I could not figure out who in their right mind would possibly confuse an environmental group with an automobile manufacturer. We have all heard about the (alleged) global warming issues, and if global warming was not enough of a reason to want to buy a more fuel efficient vehicle, then the price of fuel sure should have been. I also could not figure out what attorney in their right mind would possibly encourage their client, an environmental group, to sue a giant like Honda, who could only possibly be found at fault for manufacturing cars that may be too reliable (if you have had a bad experience with a Honda, please disregard that last comment).
February 2, 2010
Who Dat Say They Gonna Sue for Trademark Infringement? Da NFL – Dat Who!
Normally, most people out there know that the NFL gets their panties in a knot if you were to use any of their trademarks. For example, the NFL owns all the names and logos associated with each of the teams, as well as the name for that season ending football game that occurs on a Sunday – I didn’t want to write “Super Bowl” for fear of being sued by the NFL! Everyone who’s anyone knows that “The Big Game” is going to happen in a couple of weeks from now and that it is going to be between the New Orleans Saints and the team that beat my beloved Jets (just out of spite, I’m not going to mention the name).
We all know what New Orleans went through in 2005. Katrina was a terrible tragedy and the one thing that kept that city going was The Saints. I never really followed The Saints, but since they did so great this year, I watched a couple of games. I always saw people in the stands with signs on it that read “WHO DAT” and I would hear the likes of Drew Brees rally his team by chanting WHO DAT! I had no idea what it meant. I did some digging and asked some folks about it. I used to work with someone that I consider to be the biggest Saints fan ever. Apparently, there is a little war chant that they have in New Orleans – “Who Dat Say They Gonna Beat Dem Saints.” That’s a great chant and very original. In my opinion, it belongs to the people of New Orleans… not the NFL. I’m glad that The Saints have made it to the Super Bowl. New Orleans and its great citizens need this.
January 27, 2010
The Problem with the PTO Pilot Program to Accelerate Examination of “Green Technologies”
Back in December, the USPTO announced a pilot program to accelerate examination of patent applications directed to “green technologies.” Oddly enough, this announcement came just before the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Denmark. I will refrain from ranting about the politics of this, but I only wonder if the USPTO will decide to accelerate examination of those technologies that may have an impact on any other upcoming international conferences. I think national defense and anti-terrorism are pretty big topics nowadays, but I still have not seen anything in the Federal Register about accelerated examinations of patent applications in those fields. Well, enough of that.
The pilot program aims to decrease the pendency time for patent applications in certain green technologies. The current pending time (i.e., number of months between filing an application and receiving a final decision), according to the article, is about 40 months – with an average of 30 months passing before a first Office Action is mailed to the applicant. By my count, that’s not bad compared to several other technological fields. I represent some clients that have patent applications which have been pending for going on four years. The pilot program is open to the first 3000 patent applications related to green technologies in which a proper petition is filed.
January 25, 2010
Southern Cal beats up on South Carolina… in a trademark dispute
Those of you who know me know that I am a sports junkie. GO JETS – sorry, I had to find a way to subtly get that one in there. If you are reading this and thinking that you are about to hear me rant and rave about coaching changes or NCAA violations at Southern Cal, you are in for a surprise. This is a true intellectual property dispute between two schools with teams that I don’t particularly appreciate and with football coaches that are not on my top ten list (especially you Kiffin).
Anyway, the Trojans of Southern California have dealt a trademark blow to the South Carolina Gamecocks. This dispute revolves around the logos for each school and, more specifically, the logos that each school prints on their apparel. South Carolina appealed a decision from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board refusing to register the school’s logo and also refusing to cancel a Southern California trademark. The Federal Circuit upheld both decisions.
January 21, 2010
The “Departure” of Conan O’Brien Brings Up Intellectual Property Issues
So unless you go to bed at 8PM (which I wish I did) or you don’t have a television, you have probably heard that Conan O’Brien’s attempt at hosting the coveted 11:30 time slot for NBC’s late night talk show will be short lived. NBC is bumping Conan and going back to Jay Leno. Personally, I used to watch Leno as I was falling asleep and found his skits to be somewhat humorous – Jaywalking, Battle of the Jaywalk Allstars, Headlines, etc. I never really stayed up late enough to watch Conan’s skits, but I am somewhat familiar with them – the talking picture thing, Triumph the Insult Dog (one of my personal favorites), etc.
As you probably know, the NBC late night debacle has been pretty contentious. My personal favorite was during Conan’s monologue a few nights ago when he was noting that hosting the Tonight Show, even for a short period of time, was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. He went on to give some advice to the kids out there – “you can do whatever you want to do… so long as Jay Leno doesn’t want to do it too.”
