Monthly Archives: June 2014

Something fishy about this trademark claim?

Posted on June 20, 2014 by rtushnet

GurglePot, Inc. v. New Shreve, Crump & Low LLC, 2014 WL 2744283, No. C13–6029 (W.D. Wash. June 17, 2014) I’m not really interested in the law in this personal jurisdiction case, finding that there’s no personal jurisdiction in plaintiff’s home … Continue reading →

Posted in trademark | Leave a comment

Apply fair use to burned area

Posted on June 19, 2014 by rtushnet

Via Five Useful Articles, this deposition excerpt from HathiTrust is nearly priceless–what takes it beyond the usual snark is the very last dig the HT lawyer gets in at the Authors Guild’s theory of the case. So, HT’s lawyer snarks … Continue reading →

Posted in http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post | Leave a comment

"original" and "first" are mere puffery

Posted on June 18, 2014 by rtushnet

Bern Unlimited, Inc. v. Burton Corp., No. 11-12278, 2014 WL 2649006 (D. Mass. June 12, 2014) Bern sued six of its competitors in the market for sports helmets, alleging trade dress infringement.  Answering Bern’s third amended complaint, defendants asserted false … Continue reading →

Posted in http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, patents | Leave a comment

Washington’s football team registrations cancelled

Posted on June 18, 2014 by rtushnet

If you didn’t get the link from five other places, here it is.  (It turns out that today was a bad day to wear shorts to the office; it’s not the best outfit for being interviewed by a suited TV … Continue reading →

Posted in trademark | Leave a comment

Grande deception?

Posted on June 18, 2014 by rtushnet

Starbucks and the “free” college education for its workers: The reporting on Starbucks’ offer has gone beyond the headline—and if treated like ordinary advertising, that headline is misleading.  As it turns out, Starbucks will only pay in full for two … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, commercial speech, consumer protection, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post | Leave a comment

Fair use decisionmaking

Posted on June 18, 2014 by rtushnet

Deconstructing arguments that treat fair use as a mysterious and dangerous concept: This detailed analysis of a flowchart is quite useful. And it cites the OTW’s Fair Use Test Suite! http://tushnet.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Posted in copying, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post | Leave a comment

reading list: marijuana advertising and lessons from tobacco

Posted on June 17, 2014 by rtushnet

Kimber P. Richter, Ph.D., M.P.H. & Sharon Levy, M.D., M.P.H., Big Marijuana — Lessons from Big Tobacco, New England Journal of Medicine: [T]obacco was not always as lethal or addictive as it is today. In the 1880s, few people used … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, reading list | Leave a comment

ALI CLE event on Lexmark, Pom, etc.

Posted on June 17, 2014 by rtushnet

First, I apologize for the slew of RSS feed updates you may recently have received if you subscribe via an RSS reader like Feedly—the feed has apparently been broken since early May. I was still here though!  If you’re interested, … Continue reading →

Posted in http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, presentations | Leave a comment

Such a lonely word: "honest" isn’t puffery

Posted on June 16, 2014 by rtushnet

Salazar v. Honest Tea, Inc., 2014 WL 2593601, No. 2:13-cv-02318 (E.D. Cal. June 10, 2014) Salazar alleged that HT’s Honey Green Tea bottles didn’t contain the amount of antioxidants represented on their labels, where independent lab testing determined that the … Continue reading →

Posted in california, consumer protection, fda, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, preemption | Leave a comment

infringement isn’t disparagement for advertising injury purposes

Posted on June 16, 2014 by rtushnet

Hartford Casualty Ins. Co. v. Swift Distribution, Inc., No. S207172, 2014 WL 2609753 (Cal. June 12, 2014) The California Supreme Court here provides a relatively rare state court interpretation of the scope of an advertising-related insurance policy.  Hartford insured Swift … Continue reading →

Posted in disparagement, insurance, trademark | Leave a comment