Blog Posts: Intellectual Property

Following the recent investment frenzy in cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology has seemingly reached mainstream status. Many different uses for this technology have emerged and are disrupting public and private-sector industries across the globe. Hundreds of new businesses are created in this space annually, and blockchain related trademark filings in the U.S. ...

In the context of trademarks, “fair use” is the term given to the use of someone else’s trademark in a way that will not subject the user to liability for infringing the owner’s rights. Fair use is a defense to a claim of trademark infringement. There are two categories of trademark fair use: Classic Fair Use: When someone else's trade...

Social media usage has exploded in recent years and has permanently transformed the way products and services are marketed and sold. Social media platforms include many different online destinations such as social networking sites, blogging sites, and rating and review sites. The availability and proliferation of so many online destinations has expanded the opport...

On June 19, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the disparagement clause of the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. § 1051 et seq.) in Matal v. Tam (137 S. Ct. 1744), holding that it violates the First Amendment’s free speech clause. Before the Matal v. Tam decision, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) relied on the disparageme...

Celebrity kitty Tardar Sauce aka “Grumpy Cat” (or, rather, the entity that owns rights to the GRUMPY CAT brand) has prevailed on its claims of breach of contract and trademark and copyright infringement against a beverage company for exceeding the scope of its license to use the brand to produce and market coffee products. In 2013, Grumpy Cat Limited (“GCL�...

If I were an expert survivalist who was offered one tool to survive alone in the elements, I would probably choose a fire starter … but maybe a knife, a pot, or duct tape. Really, I would want all of those items because no one tool has the versatility I would want. But, for an expert in defending website operators from against claims, choosing one tool is e...

People either find your business on the Internet or they find your competition. Your business likely has some presence on the web. Usually it is a website that uses your business name as its "domain name" such as ABCcompany.com. The term domain name simply describes the characters that identify your website. The slight difference between a domain name ending in ".c...

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides copyright protection and some limitations of liability for online copyright infringement if safe harbors are used.  It governs the majority of US-based websites and internet service providers.     What is a DMCA agent? In order to employ the safe harbor protections offered by the DMCA, c...

  US Supreme Court Rules on Star Athletica, LLC v. Varsity Brands, Inc. On March 22, 2017, the Supreme Court rendered its decision in what many refer to as the cheerleader uniform case.  Star Athletica, LLC v. Varsity Brands, Inc. The Court decided whether designs on cheerleader uniforms were entitled to copyright protection.  Copyright law protects “pictori...

Whether you realize it or not, you are probably storing some personal or business data in the cloud. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines cloud computing as a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and serv...