Category Archives: http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post

Public Knowledge on the monkey selfie threat letter

Sherwin Siy, bringing just enough snark in reply to the camera-owner’s demand letter.  http://tushnet.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

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

Reading list: Putting Intellectual Property in Its Place

Laura J. Murray, S. Tina Piper, & Kirsty Robertson, Putting Intellectual Property in Its Place: Rights Discourses, Creative Labor, and the Everyday: Coming at roughly the same time as Jessica Silbey’s The Eureka Myth, this book, like Silbey’s, challenges IP … Continue reading

Posted in http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, patent, reading list, trademark | Leave a comment

When is a 13-year discrepancy immaterial?

According to the UK ASA, when it’s the difference between 1860 and 1873 as the confirmed date of a bakery’s founding: “We understood that their competitors were much younger, with the oldest having been founded in 1949 and so Warrens … Continue reading

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

False advertising claims not arbitrable when ads predated agreement

Mohebbi v. Khazen, Case No. 13-cv-03044, 2014 WL 6845477 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 4, 2014) Mohebbi sued Khazen over Mohebbi’s agreement to invest over $1 million in a partnership in exchange for defendants’ help in getting him qualified for the federal … Continue reading

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

Garcia v. Google thoughts: input welcome!

Along with many others, Shyamkrishna Balganesh, Justin Hughes, Peter Menell, and David Nimmer submitted an amicus in Garcia v. Google making a number of interesting arguments; I’m generally sympathetic to the idea that we should be more flexible about joint … Continue reading

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

ABA teleconference on irreparable harm in Lanham Act false advertising cases

I’ll be participating in this teleconference, 12 pm EST on December 12.  http://tushnet.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

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

A case peppered with TM and advertising issues

United Tactical Systems v. Real Action Paintball, Inc., 2014 WL 6788310, No. 14-cv-04050 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 2, 2014) UTS sued RAP4 mostly over the trademark PepperBall; the court granted a preliminary injunction based on some of its claims.  Nonparty PepperBall … Continue reading

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

Religion isn’t (yet) a defense to false advertising

State v. Valerie Saxion, Inc., 2014 WL 6839970, No. 02–13–00227 (Tex. Ct. App. Dec. 4, 2014) Valerie Saxion argued that her free speech (and RFRA) rights were being violated by the state’s pursuit of claims against her and her company … Continue reading

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

B&N almost entirely off the hook for copying backpack design

Rubio v. Barnes & Noble, Inc., 2014 WL 6769150, No. 14–CV–6561 (S.D.N.Y Nov. 11, 2014) Rubio sued her alma mater, the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and Barnes & Noble, Inc. for copying her original drawing of a backpack, producing … Continue reading

Posted in copyright, dastar, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, right of publicity, standing, trademark, unfairness | Leave a comment

No free lift: ad-as-contract claim survives

Kearney v. Equilon Enterprises, LLC, No. 3:14–cv–00254, 2014 WL 6769697 (D. Or. Dec. 1, 2014) Plaintiffs sued on behalf of a proposed nationwide class for breach of contract and violations of various state consumer protection statutes.  The court denied the … Continue reading

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