Monthly Archives: October 2015

Trademark infringement on hang tags is covered advertising injury

Posted on October 23, 2015 by rtushnet

E.S.Y., Inc. v. Scottsdale Ins. Co., 2015 WL 6164666, No. 15–21349–CIV (S.D. Fla. Oct. 14, 2015) Scottsdale insured ESY under a commercial general liability insurance policy, with coverage for advertising injury.  Exist, an apparel maker, later sued ESY for infringing … Continue reading →

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General involvement in app production doesn’t defeat 230

Posted on October 22, 2015 by rtushnet

Free Kick Master LLC v. Apple Inc., 2015 WL 6123058, No. 15-cv-03403 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 19, 2015)   Free Kick Master has a registration for “Free Kick Master,” and sued Apple, Google, and Samsung, alleging that they all offered downloads … Continue reading →

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Back to the Future: 9th Cir. reverses itself in Multi Time Machine

Posted on October 22, 2015 by rtushnet

Multi Time Machine, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc., No. 13-55575 (9th Cir. Oct. 21, 2015)   Reversing itself (with amicus advocacy from, among others, yours truly), the panel now by 2-1 holds that Amazon should have gotten summary judgment for its … Continue reading →

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Hand in glove: ICE and trademark seizures

Posted on October 21, 2015 by rtushnet

More tidbits from my FOIA suit against ICE, including the revelation that they did indeed record at least one seizure of disparaging items, “Baltimore sucks” T-shirts.  (Other entries are suggestive, but too unclear to be sure what was seized without … Continue reading →

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Transformative works of the day

Posted on October 20, 2015 by rtushnet

R. Sumantri MS, from Indonesia, paints DC and Marvel superheroes juxtaposed with Asian folk and mythological characters. Here: Guan Gong vs. Iron Man, Nezha vs. Batman, and Guan Gong vs. Captain America from his China New Supreme Power series. Discovered … Continue reading →

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Right of Publicity Workshop Part 3

Posted on October 17, 2015 by rtushnet

Relationship to Copyright law/Relationship to Trademark law    Dryer v. NFL will be argued to the 8th Cir. challenged by retired NFL players to continued airing of programs recounting their exploits in actual games.  Survived a motion to dismiss.  After … Continue reading →

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Right of publicity workshop part 2

Posted on October 17, 2015 by rtushnet

How is the “right” to be reconciled with the First Amendment?     Could be part of the vast universe of communication that isn’t protected speech: Fred Schauer’s writing.  Contracts aren’t protected by 1A, etc.  Could just be market behavior. That … Continue reading →

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Right of publicity workshop at Yale

Posted on October 17, 2015 by rtushnet

Right of Publicity Workshop Yale Law School Information Society Project Abrams Institute for Freedom of Expression   Chatham House rules apparently allow me to disclose my own participation, but not that of others, so I’ll just take some notes on … Continue reading →

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Factor four: the most interesting part of the Google Books decision

Posted on October 16, 2015 by rtushnet

Authors Guild v. Google, Inc., No. 13-4829-cv (2d Cir. Oct. 16, 2015) Today’s Google Books decision breaks no new ground in terms of transformativeness.  It is perhaps most interesting in its finessing of the question “what is a derivative work?” … Continue reading →

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Dastar bars website trade dress claim that just repeats copyright allegations

Posted on October 16, 2015 by rtushnet

Touchpoint Communications, LLC v. DentalFone, LLC, No. 15-cv-05240 (W.D. Wash. Oct. 9, 2015)   Touchpoint and DentalFone are Internet dental marketing companies.  Touchpoint filed a declaratory judgment action seeking a judgment of noninfringement of DentalFone’s copyrights and trade dress/lack of … Continue reading →

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