Tag Archives: trademark

No need to be chicken about copying in poultry feeder case

CTB, Inc. v. Hog Slat, Inc., 2018 WL 4035945, No. 14-CV-157-FL (E.D.N.C. Aug. 22, 2018) CTB sued HS for making an allegedly exact replica of CTB’s poultry feeder, infringing its registered trademarks for product configuration and color (color on the … Continue reading

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Don’t send a trademark to do a copyright’s job, forestry edition

Munro v. Lucy Activewear, Inc., No. 16-4483 (8th Cir. Aug. 9, 2018) Munro is an artist best known for his works “Field of Light” and “Forest of Light”—“large-scale, immersive, light-based installations, and exhibitions.” Lucy allegedly proposed a Lucy advertising and … Continue reading

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Court considers fake reviews not deceptive if they’re just puffery

Jive Commerce, LLC  v. Wine Racks America, Inc., 2018 WL 3873675, No. 1:18-CV-49 TS-BCW (D. Utah Aug. 15, 2018) The parties compete in the wine rack and wine cellar industry. Jive’s principal Jason Miller was formerly employed by WRA. Miller … Continue reading

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DC Circuit dodges incontestability, finds little-noticed statements immaterial in dueling desserts case

Paleteria La Michoacana, Inc. v. Productos Lacteos Tocumbo S.A. de C.V., 2018 WL 3894587, No. 17-7075 (D.C. Cir. Aug. 10, 2018) The facts are a mess, but basically PLM and Prolacto both make paletas, Mexican frozen desserts, using nearly the … Continue reading

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IPSC session 6

Session 6: Tort-Tinged IP Ben Depoorter (and Robert Walker), So Sue Me … Please! Reverse Nuisance in Intellectual Property Law Goldieblox case: filed declaratory judgment against Beastie Boys. Getting sued can sometimes be a boon and can bring a lot … Continue reading

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IPSC session 4

Session 4: Old and New Theories of IP Shyam Balganesh, The Common Law of Copyright Censorial copyright claims: motivated by non economic, dignitary concerns, and the author/creator’s principal objective is expurgatory—to prevent the work from circulating publicly. These claims have … Continue reading

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IPSC session 2

Session 2: IP History and Theory, Stephanie Bair, IP Inequality Artists and innovators are not equally distributed. Rich people are more likely to acquire IP rights than poor people; whites than minorities in the US; males than females.  Theoretical lens: … Continue reading

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IPSC session 1

Standard disclaimers apply: These are my summaries, not the presentations themselves. As usual, I have to skip a lot of interesting presentations and I try to attend things I haven’t seen, no matter how good the ones I have already … Continue reading

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The Ninth Circuit don’t care: successful Rogers defense reversed because plaintiff’s trademark is “artistic”

Gordon v. Drape Creative, Inc., No. 16-56715 (9th Cir. Jul. 30, 2018) The Ninth Circuit routinely invents some new epicycle for trademark defenses; here it unfortunately mushes together Rogers and transformativeness (absent the word itself, replaced with “artistic”).  There are … Continue reading

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Plastic not so fantastic: video shot in medical facility didn’t defame or infringe facility’s TM rights

Weirton Medical Center, Inc. v. Introublezone, Inc., 2018 WL 3458261, J-A06003-18 (Pa. Super. Ct. Jul. 18, 2018) Dr. Craig Richard Oser was a plastic surgeon with staff privileges at plaintiff WMC from 2009 to 2014, making him an employee according … Continue reading

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