IP: News and Views

What's new in IP-land?

November

Tiffany v. eBay set to Begin The suit was originally filed in 2004 when Tiffany sued eBay over trademark infringement for allowing counterfeit items to be sold on it's auction site. eBay argues back that they already have anti-counterfeit policing policies and a program called VeRO to help rights owners prevent the sale of counterfeit goods. Tiffany's rebuts that these implementations are less effective and more costly than it would be for eBay to police their site. Also noted, the plaintiffs believe at least 95% of the goods going through eBay are fake. WaPO Complaint Answer--DOBrien 11:58, 14 November 2007 (EST)

Chewy Vuiton is a pardy of Louis Vuitton, and Not Subject to Liability for Trademark or Copyright Infringement or Dilution The Fourth Circuit handed down this ruling affirming summary judgment in favor of the dog toy manufacturer. Snitty 11:25, 14 November 2007 (EST)

How to reclaim a site from domain squatters (via Wired) After reviewing the article, it is a poor how-to. However, it does provide a starting point for individuals or businesses to inspect domain squatting. There is also a very brief introduction to the statutory history based on Trent Lott's efforts. http://howto.wired.com/wiredhowtos/index.cgi?page_name=reclaim_your_site_from_domain_squatters

Google Being Sued by Northeastern University Over Patent Dispute The lawsuit alleges infringement over Patent # 5,694,593 entitled "Distributed Computer Database System and Method." The invention in question was invented by Professor Kenneth Baclawski, a professor in the computer science department. The invention is a method of searching and retrieving information from large, distributed databases. The complaint calls for a jury trial, injunction, and royalty payments. Patent Reuters Article--DOBrien 22:07, 11 November 2007 (EST)

Fair Use in Parody I think this website and the series of books bearing its name pretty much sum up the relevancy to the course. BarryTrotter.com

PerfumeBay.com infringes eBay.com's Trademark So says a 9th Circuit opinion. What's most interesting about this case is that the lower court's finding of a likelihood of confusion seemed to indicate that any "bay" site which wasn't using the "bay" for geography would pretty much be infringing eBay's trademark, that is, if they were selling anything.

Harry Potter & the Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Author J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers filed suit on Wednesday (Halloween) in Manhattan against RDR Books and Does 1-10 for their plans to release a 400-page book entitled the "Harry Potter Lexicon." The offending book is alleged to contain a misappropriation of Rowling's fictional characters and universe, including: "list after list of spells and potions, imaginary places, fantastic creatures and invented games." Rowling asserts the book is also misleading "to consumers and will be marketed in a way that implies endorsement by Plaintiffs and will likely cause confusion." The publisher, RDR, states that the book contains much of the same material already on hp-lexicon.org, which is a "fan created collection of essays, spells and encyclopedic material on the Harry Potter universe." AP Article Complaint WSJ Article--DOBrien 22:25, 2 November 2007 (EDT)

The difficulty of registering Tarzan's trademark yell "Tarzan's distinctive yell cannot be registered as a trademark because it is almost impossible to represent graphically. Sounds can be registered as trademarks, but the [OHIM] ruling could limit that to sounds that can be written in standard musical notation." http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/31/tarzan_yell_trade_mark/ - Sean Toohey

Herman Miller protects its chairs in the fake-life: http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9794128-1.html Second Life game players produced virtual versions of Aeron chairs and sold them to the denizens of Second Life. - John Long

October

The Pirate Bay Brings Back OiNK OiNK was a prominent bit torrent tracker formed in May 2004, Interpol forced it's closure this week due to a large amount of alleged copyright infringement-- notably pre-released music albums among others. The Pirate Bay, whom has constantly flashed the proverbial digital middle finger at copyright enforcement groups, has announced it will bring back OiNk as "BOiNK." This announcement shows a continuing resistance from the pirating communities: the idea that if you take down one torrent, a second will pop up soon thereafter. TorrentFreak Article--DOBrien 19:45, 26 October 2007 (EDT)

Colorado Rockies seek to trademark "Rocktober" There are a surprising number of other uses for "Rocktober." Think the Rockies have developed secondary meaning for it? http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2007/news/story?id=3070519 -Anna

Brewer in dispute with real Sam Adams The Boston brewers of Sam Adams beer objected when they learned that a mayoral campaign here included Web sites invoking the name of their product: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071025/ap_on_re_us/odd_candidate_vs__beer Carota.m 09:08, 25 October 2007 (EDT)
here's the letter

IBM Aims to Patent Profiting Off Patents http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/23/AR2007102301335.html

That's hot: Paris Hilton's trademark Yes, even Paris Hilton is in on the intellectual property scene: http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2007-09-08-hilton-hallmark_N.htm If you want to check it out, it's Serial No.: 76604206 or Registration No.: 3209488 Melissa O'Berg--129.10.177.254 16:21, 23 October 2007 (EDT)

Amazon Patents "In URL" Searching Amazon.com was granted a patent on a method of searching whereby you type in a url and the search term afterward. Example: "http://www.a9.com/Patent law" There's a "spirited" discussion at the above link regarding the obviousness of the patent.

AT&T Is Latest to Sue Vonage Over Patent http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/20/technology/20phone.html

DMCA and Sweat Work Dispute The Nation's Largest seller of text books is suing Ugenie for breach of contract (terms of service) and copyright infringement. The Plaintiff, Follett Higher Education Group goes around and collects course titles and book lists from colleges all over the country. They then make the information freely available on their website. They allege that Ugenie, in violation of the DMCA and Follett's terms of service, used bots to copy this information and post it on their own website. (Snitty 11:53, 23 October 2007 (EDT))

Trademark Dispute!! HBO versus NY Fitness Instructor http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/10/22/a-trademark-dispute-the-city/ [posted by your favorite die hard Taco Cabana fan]

Law Firm Says Copyright Bans Users From Looking At Its Website HTML Source Code "We also own all of the code, including the HTML code, and all content. As you may know, you can view the HTML code with a standard browser. We do not permit you to view such code since we consider it to be our intellectual property protected by the copyright laws. You are therefore not authorized to do so." [1]

A group of media and internet companies plans to announce online copyright protection guidelines in an attempt to combat infringing content uploaded by users of websites like YouTube. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119269788721663302.html?mod=djemalert

Amazon.com's One-Click Patent Struck Down by PTO http://igdmlgd.blogspot.com/2007/10/amazon-one-click-patent-rejected-by-us.html

Creative Chinese Knockoffs This isn't "news," but since we move onto trademarks soon I thought it would make an interesting post. Check out these pictures of Chinese knockoffs. Knockoffs

Nixon Peabody LLP Makes Terrible Song, Fair Use Ensues... Nixon Peabody LLP had a "theme" song made celebrating their firm. Apparently everyone's a winner at Nixon Peabody. The song was leaked, and picked up by various sources. Nixon Peabody was not to happy about this, and asked that the song be taken down. However, citing fair use, many sites kept it up. See the links for articles, the song itself, and a funny youtube clip covering the ordeal. http://www.abovethelaw.com/2007/08/nixon_peabody_themesonggate_an.php http://www.abovethelaw.com/images/NixonPeabody.mp3 http://youtube.com/watch?v=7SeL6i3sHM0 (apologies if sound doesn't work)

First Linux Patent Infringement Lawsuit Filed Complaint filed by IP Innovation, LLC against Red Hat and Novell. IP Innovation is claiming ownership of 3 patents entitled "User Interface With Multiple Workspaces for Sharing System Display Objects." The complaint alleges infringement through Red Hat Linux and Novell's Suse Linux products. Complaint Groklaw Article

"Label sues Perez Hilton for posting Brit's songs" Ok, so it isn't as high tech as some of the things we've been reading, but I was amused when I saw this & thought I'd share... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21255700/ [-Valerie Cooney 10/11]

Event: Friday, Oct. 12 Digital Freedom University's copyright debate and concert, Curry Student Center West Addition, Friday at 4 p.m. http://digitalfreedom.org/events/digital_freedom_university.html

One Way to Keep That 'Cease-and-Desist' Letter From Getting Posted Online, Copyright it In an attempt to avoid the embarrassment of having their cease and desist letters posted online companies are now claiming they hold a copyright on the letters so they cannot be posted online for the public to see (and probably make fun of). [2]

Vonage and Sprint Settle Patent Dispute Vonage agrees to pay $80M to license Sprint's VoIP technology. The deal includes $35M in past infringement, $40M for future use and $5M in prepayment for services. Sprint asserted that Vonage had infringed on 6 patents. WSJ

Minnesota Woman Must Pay $222k for Kazaa'ing 24 songs "A 30-year-old Duluth, Minn., woman must pay six record companies $222,000 for violating copyright by downloading songs illegally and then sharing them through Kazaa, a federal jury has ruled in the first such lawsuit to go to trial." USA Today Wired

Family Guy Sued for Copyright Infringement The copyright owner of "When You Wish Upon A Star" sued Fox for the song I Need A Jew. The lyrics of When You Wish Upon a Star can be found here. The similarity between the lyrics and melody are undeniable, however is there a strong argument for fair use? How likely is this song to have an impact on the market for the original? Can they argue it was a pardoy and not satire?

Screenshots are fair use "We must decide whether the unauthorized use of a "screen shot" - a frozen image from a personal video game - falls within the fair use exception to the law of copyright." From Sony v. Bleem. [background] [case on lexis]

Sony BMG Says CD Ripping is Stealing Arguing that CD Ripping is no longer fair use Jennifer Pariser, a lawyer for Sony BMG said that making MP3s from your CDs is a nice way of saying that you're only stealing one copy of the music. Is this space or device shifting fair use? What if you download the music that you own on CD rather than ripping it from the CD yourself?

See http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/riaa_trial/index.html

iPhone Owners Contemplate Class Action Over "Bricking." A disgruntled iPhone owner is looking for people to join in a suit against Apple. They are alleging that Apple is refusing to support phones under warranty, specifically for those phones which people unlocked to work on other networks. Why is this IP related? Because unlocking your phone is fair use under the DMCA (which would ordinarlly forbid you from trying to circumvent protection like this. So can Apple either (1) not provide people with legitimate means to unlock their phones, or (2) void the warranties of those who do?

Old news regarding utility of gene patents Speaking of utility and gene patents, the USPTO issued examination guidelines in 2001 http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/sol/notices/utilexmguide.pdf :

"An inventor’s discovery of a gene can be the basis for a patent on the genetic composition isolated from its natural state and processed through purifying steps that separate the gene from other molecules naturally associated with it. If a patent application discloses only nucleic acid molecular structure for a newly discovered gene, and no utility for the claimed isolated gene, the claimed invention is not patentable. But when the inventor also discloses how to use the purified gene isolated from its natural state, the application satisfies the ‘‘utility’’ requirement. That is, where the application discloses a specific, substantial, and credible utility for the claimed isolated and purified gene, the isolated and purified gene composition may be patentable."

September

I know it's not new news, but can you really blame the peer-to-peer networks/software companies/groups when the record industry seems to have been engaging in some anti-trust price hikes of their own? The record companies settled out of court with the attorney general... [3] [--Melissa O'Berg 9/25]

Copyright Suit For Violating Open Source License "The Software Freedom Law Center, the nonprofit legal services organization supporting open source software projects, announced last week the filing of a lawsuit that it bills as the "first ever U.S. copyright infringement lawsuit based on a violation of the GNU General Public License (GPL)."" [4]

Virgin sued for using teen's photo Virgin Mobile Australia is doing an ad campaign using photos they found on flickr. The photos they are using are all licensed under the Creative Commons, but there seems to be some dispute over whether the people depicted in the pictures need to be contacted before they are used. article about it[5] some discussion on slashdot[6] discussion including the girl and her family on flickr[7]

Robotics firm says rival stole designs In a case complete with private detectives and accusations of downloaded documents and shredded evidence, iRobot alleged last month that Robotic FX's products were built with trade secrets stolen by the upstart company's founder, a former iRobot engineer. http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/09/21/robotics_firm_says_rival_stole_designs/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Front+Page [Paula Lyons 9/21]

Judge Rules Star Tribune publisher must step down The Star Tribune's new publisher (hired only 3 days after he left Twin Cities rival newspaper The Pioneer Press) is now prohibited from working for the Star Tribune for 1 year after he was convicted of taking trade secret information from The Pioneer Press (a laptop with company docs and spreadsheets) to his new employer. [8]

RIAA loses So-Cal copyright suit on MTD RIAA filed "boilerplate" complaint for infringement based on "downloading and distributing copyrighted works." Judge granted MTD for failure to state a claim, holding "Plaintiff here must present at least some facts to show the plausibility of their allegations of copyright infringement against defendant...other than the bare conclusory statement that on 'information and belief' defendant has downloaded, distributed and/or made available for distribution to the public copyrighted works..." DailyTech Article , Complaint, Order

Programmer Deletes Source Code -- Trade Secret Misappropriation Technology Law Update 9/17/07

The Piracy Paradox: How Illegal Copying is Good for the Fashion Industry The New Yorker.

Prince to sue YouTube, eBay over music use U.S. pop star Prince plans to sue YouTube and other major Web sites for unauthorized use of his music in a bid to "reclaim his art on the Internet." http://music.yahoo.com/read/news/48019363 9/16/07

Company Patents Playlists, Sues Everyone "A company called Premier International Associates filed suit against a slew of tech companies . . . [for] violating Premier's patents for an electronic "List building system"—the older of which was applied for in 1997 and issued in 2001." Ars Technica 9/14/07

Microsoft Patents Watermark That May Protect DRM-free Music Microsoft Corp. has won a patent for a digital-watermarking technology that could be used to protect the rights of content owners even when digital music is distributed without DRM protection. Microsoft Patents Watermark

Copyright Protection for Sound Recordings Will Not be Extended in the UK [9] -- Not exactly new news, but I find it interesting that the US extended protection for Mickey Mouse and the UK isn't going to do it for the Beatles

House Passes Patent Reform Bill The Patent Law Blog -- The Patent Law Blog has a good review of the provisions of the patent reform bill, H 1908. It's provisions include a transition to a first to file system, and an overhaul of the way courts should calculate damages. 9/11/07

Doctor Who Leaked Documents Will Pay $100,000 to Lilly NYT -- Dr. Egilman received the documents as a litigation expert, then provided them to other sources including the New York Times. Is the NYT liable for trade secret misappropriation too?

Pharma Companies form Joint Venture – THe New York Times is reporting that two companies, Isis Pharmaceuticals and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals have formed an equally owned joint venture, Regulus Pharmaceuticals. One of the driving forces behind the joint venture was to combine their IP, specifically, patents, in order to do research without fear of patent infringement. (Snitty 08:20, 7 September 2007 (EDT))

Tech, drug companies battle over patent reform. The Washington Post, reports on some of the lobbying around proposed Patent Reform that Congress will consider on its return from recess. Look at the industry groups lined up on opposing sides. 9/3/07

Before Models Can Turn Around, Knockoffs Fly Fashion designers want IP protection for their designs. Should they get some? New York Times, 9/3/07

A big victory: Golan v. Gonzales Professor Larry Lessig blogs about the unanimous court ruling, effectively working towards that works that are in the public domain stay in the public domain. Also: [Stanford Center for Internet and Society] 9/5/07

Pepsi Alerted Coca-Cola to Stolen-Coke-Secrets Offer In this article, Fox News reports on an attempt to sell Pepsi some of Coke's trade secrets.

August

Unlocking the iPhone could invite DMCA suit This link PC WORLD article speaks about how some really intelligent hackers may get into trouble with AT&T and Apple. Apparently, reverse engineering and innovation is not always a good thing, especially when companies are making money for their hard work to keep an exclusive relationship.

Google Settles Trademark Suit Google settled a suit brought by American Blind and Wallpaper Factory for their AdWords program. The theory of the suit was that Google was getting revenue from using trademarks owned by AB&WF. When someone would search for American Blind, google would display sponsored results, thereby making money off of their trade mark. The settlement ended up not being for money, but for a promise that Google wouldn't change AdWords policy to adversely affect AB&WF. You can view the story here: New York Times --Ben Snitkoff

Failure to adhere to Open Source License is not Copyright Breach A blog article detailing Jacobsen v. Katzer. 8/27/07 link title