COPYRIGHTS

A forgotten right the government can’t take away

If you have followed the news lately, you’ve probably have heard about the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) board decision to cancel the Washington Redskin’s federal trademark registrations covering their name and graphical logo. The USPTO had determined that the term, “Redskin” and the graphical logo associated with the NFL team, violated trademark […]

August 11th, 2014|

Hazy times for Colorado’s marijuana businesses

Many businesses are dealing with the impacts of Colorado’s foray into recreational marijuana. Often, this uncertainty is focused on how the new laws and regulations will be implemented. While compliance with the Colorado regulatory framework is often the first priority of companies associated with the marijuana industry, another important legal issue is lurking below the […]

May 22nd, 2014|

The perils of third-party IP policy shifts

Gammers Teach us a lesson on the perils of shifting 3rd Party IP Policies.

 

Before Christmas a client gave me a heads up about some new developments in Youtube’s Content ID System that was causing an uproar in the gamming community and others who monetize their YouTube videos.  The conflict stems from what appears to be […]

January 29th, 2014|

The murky law of fair use

Weird Al doing a Michael Jackson song parody?

In our practice, we deal not only with the enforcement of intellectual property rights, but we also do a fair amount of defense of accused infringers. One of the surest ways of getting into an intellectual property dispute (aside from illegally downloading movies using BitTorrent) is to make […]

November 6th, 2013|

Hey, that’s mine! The ins and outs of grey markets and the law

At some time or another, anyone who produces a product or commercializes a copyrightable work will inevitably run into the situation where you see your products being resold by someone that is not you or one of your direct distributors.

Oftentimes, this becomes an issue for a business because of the price at which the items […]

April 15th, 2013|

The $64,000 Innovation Question

What do Yahoo, telecommuting and intellectual property legal services have in common?

At first glance, the popular answer may be “Absolutely nothing.” But those three seemingly unrelated topics might actually have a profound effect on your business and the quality of your intellectual property legal representation.

Yahoo made some waves last month by issuing an edict that […]

March 26th, 2013|

Revenge of the prom dress: Fashion Wars episode 100,001

Over the years, our firm has represented numerous apparel companies with regard to intellectual property matters, and we have observed many of the difficulties these companies face in protecting the value of their designs. The interesting aspect facing apparel companies is that often times the “low brow” fashion of graphic T-shirts and sneakers are more […]

December 11th, 2012|

The perils of public-generated content

There is a well-known phrase known to businesses relying on the internet to help drive marketing and sales: “Content is king.”

That phrase has expanded, in the wake of businesses turning to Facebook and YouTube and in the development and use of better consumer digital cameras and video. That new and improved phrase is this: “User-generated […]

August 13th, 2012|

Avoidance: Understandable, but Often Painful

This is about pain — the avoidable kind.

Lawyers can get a bad rap for shark-ism and sometimes, that’s fair. In this case, however, the pain is shared across the board, by both the lawyers and the clients. No one, including a hard-working and ethical attorney, likes seeing people have to spend blood, time and money […]

Caution: You’ve been hacked—and sued

The newest legal challenge on the horizon for businesses may be the rise of what is known as “The Copyright Troll.”  Copyright Trolls are generally companies formed by attorneys whose sole purpose is to secure the enforcement rights from content providers (usually movies) and then find infringers (using a special software) — wherein those same […]

July 11th, 2012|
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