Trademark & Copyright

As you may recall, we asked the question in a recent blog post “Are You Willing to Pay $22,500 to Download A Song? " Well, we now ask "Are you willing to pay $9250 to download a song?" 

A few weeks ago, the Second Circuit's ruling in the Louboutin decision made clear that color as a trademark can be protected in the fashion industry.  Recently, Lululemon has sued Calvin Klein for design patent infringement over the design of yoga pants.

In our August 14th blog, we explained why just because you can copy something from the Internet, doesn’t mean you should copy from the Internet. A case on this very issue that has been around for several years involved the well-known “Hope” poster of President Obama’s face made during the 2008 campaign.

In its recent decision in Christian Louboutin S.A. v. Yves Saint Laurent America, Inc., the Second Circuit held there was no "per se rule that would deny protection for use of a single color as a trademark in a particular industrial context."

The Second Circuit recently issued an opinion in the Louboutin v. Yves Saint Laurent trademark case. To refresh your memory, Louboutin, the high-end women’s shoe designer, had secured a U.S. trademark registration for the color red as used on the outsoles of women’s shoes. 

It appears that Newt Gingrich and Frankie Sullivan, a member of the rock band Survivor, and his company Rude Music , have reached a tentative settlement in the latter’s copyright infringement suits against Gingrich for use of the song "Eye of the Tiger" during Gingrich’s presidential campaign bid.

The August 23, 2012 decision in Song BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, the most recent in this extended litigation, leaves no doubt that individuals who download music and distribute it without proper authorization through peer-to-peer file sharing sites are subject to liability for copyright infringement and payment of substantial statutory damages for doing so.

As we reported in December, two adult entertainment companies filed suit in federal district court in Los Angeles against the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and ICM Registry, the sole operator of the .XXX domain name registry.

In a number of recent cases, individual photographers have successfully sued third parties for unauthorized reproduction and use of photographs, particularly those from stock photography sources.

On Friday, August 10, 2012, Google announced that it was changing its search algorithms so that websites with high numbers of valid copyright infringement removal notices would appear much lower in the search results.

ICANN has announced that it has extended the public comment period for new generic top-level domain (gTLD) applications for an additional 45 days. The public comment period was scheduled to close on August 12th. The new end date is now September 26, 2012. 

Our colleagues in the Bankruptcy Section published a client advisory on a recent decision that has important implications for the bankruptcy rights of trademark licensees (and licensees of other forms of intellectual property).

What if someone applied for a new generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) that is confusingly similar to the gTLD applied for by your company? Who has standing to file an objection or to submit a public comment in response to an applied-for gTLD? 

On July 2, 2012, the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB” or “Board”) granted Hershey's request to register the design and shape of a chocolate bar as a trademark on the Principal Register.

On July 6, 2012, in Lebewohl v. Heart Attack Grill, LLC , a New York Judge made it possible, in the words of the Wall Street Journal, for people to continue to “Order Up a Heart Attack" in, at least, Las Vegas and Manhattan.

The U.S. Copyright Office has made it clear through a Statement of Policy released on June 18, 2012 that “functional physical movements such as sports movements, exercises, and other ordinary motor activities alone" are not works of authorship protected under U.S. copyright law.

At a conference held June 18 at Stanford University Law School - The 9th Annual Stanford Ecommerce Best Practices Conference - it was reported that copyright holders are increasingly using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's ("DMCA") notice and takedown procedures to address copyright infringement on websites.

The list of gTLD applications and applicants, disclosed by ICANN yesterday, is a fascinating read.  It provides an insight into how the Internet will be transformed (or, depending on your point of view, confused) in the coming years as new domain name extensions are introduced to consumers.

ICANN published the list of applied-for gTLD character strings today. Here is the list. Take a look to see who has applied. There are many applications for .BRANDS, like .AMERICANEXPRESS, .MACYS, and .LEGO. 

Do you "google?" That is the essence of the question before the Federal District Court in Arizona in a Complaint filed on May 21, 2012 by David Elliott against Internet search engine giant Google, Inc. In Elliot v Google, Inc., CV-12-1072-PHX-MHB, Elliot claims that Google’s once distinctive mark GOOGLE® has become generic and lacks trademark significance due to its common use as a transitive verb.