Stopping Copyright Infringement on the Internet?
Protecting intellectual property on the Internet has been a dilemma for the music and movie industry since peer-to-peer technology emerged with the original Napster. Recently in an effort to curtail copyright infringement the government has shut down peer-to-peer webpages and the music and movie industry have filed and threatened to file lawsuits against individuals who […]
Design Patents and Utility Patents
I hope everyone is having a happy Thanksgiving. I searched through the patent office to find patents with a Turkey and I looked through the many utility patents and design patents. This led me to wonder if people really understand the difference between the two. Utility Patents: For any process, machine, composition of matter or […]
Walgreens sues Wegmans over Trademark
Recently I wrote a blog post regarding the alleged infringement of the trademark. Now the national drugstore chain Walgreens believes that the Wegmans logo looks too much like the Walgreens registered trademark (.PDF). So they have opposed Wegmans new trademark registration application (.PDF) and filed a federal lawsuit claiming infringement. Take a look at the […]
House of Pancakes Prays for Trademark Help
The International House of Pancakes has a filed (.PDF)a trademark lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles against a Kansas City, Missouri based religious group that calls itself the International House of Prayer over the acronym “IHOP.” The pancake house is going after the church group for trademark dilution and trademark infringement. If you […]
World Cup Trademarks
Congratulations to Spain for winning the World Cup in soccer. But the big money winner is the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) for the marketing of the event. The Hollywood Reporter said that 700 million people worldwide watched the World Cup 2010 yesterday. About 24 million Americans watched Spain win the World Cup over […]
“Burger King” Steals McDonald’s McMuffin Recipe
How do you protect your intellectual property? What is intellectual property? Is a special sandwich that you make better than anybody else intellectual property? Imagine you are the owner of a new restaurant who has created a new edible masterpiece. And subsequently, to your surprise, you discover that a copycat sandwich is being made across […]
“Patent Marking Police” Looking for the Big Jackpot
Since my recent blog post entitled “Patent Trolls” Search for Falsely Marked Products the ad hoc “patent marking police” have filed at least 17 lawsuits alleging false marking against 33 different companies. This number is an approximation because False Marking suits are not consistently categorized within the federal court system. To see a list of […]
The Patent Troll Problem
What a corporation needs to know about patent law… I’m sorry if I insult anybody by using the derogatory term “Patent Troll” for a non-practicing entity (NPE) or patent dealer that claims patent rights to technology and demands a licensing payment for the use of the technology. But if the name fits… I’m not saying […]
“Patent Trolls” Search for Falsely Marked Products
What a corporation should know about intellectual property law… It is now in vogue for the new breed of “patent troll” to sue corporations in the US Federal Courts on behalf of the government for falsely marking unpatented products with patent registration numbers. Corporations need to be able to identify and protect their intellectual property. […]
