We previously covered the litigious pornography company’s similar lawsuit against Google on Nov. 24, complaining about the credulous press coverage. AP repeats its mistakes, but tech magazine Red Herring does a better job. (“Erotica Site Sues Amazon”, Jul. 1).
Posts Tagged ‘tech through 2008’
Patent reform legislation
Jim DeLong surveys the terrain and finds that many significant proposals being considered command a fairly broad consensus; the two most important categories of reform are those aimed at “(1) Reducing the transaction costs of the system, especially litigation; (2) The ‘patent quality’ issue”. (“Patent Reform Hits the Hill”, TechCentralStation, Jun. 21).
Comics and IP law
Trademark and copyright battles, it turns out, have helped shape the course of development of comic-book superheroes, including their names, histories and even the array of powers they wield. Jon Rowe (Jun. 12) sorts out some of the complications.
Crustless wrapup
Cleveland Scene magazine follows up on the reverses suffered by the Smucker company in its efforts to patent the crustless peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich (Rebecca Meiser, “The Peanut Butter Jam”, Apr. 20)(see Apr. 9, 2005; Jan. 30 and May 1, 2001). On a more serious note, Dennis Crouch of Patent Law Blog has two recent posts on the politics of patent reform in Congress (May 25, May 26).
“Brand Name Bullies”
Unreviewed, but sounds promising: Brand Name Bullies, by David Bollier (website), published last December, bills itself as an “impassioned, darkly amusing look at how corporations misuse copyright and trademark law to stifle creativity and free speech.” The publisher, John Wiley & Sons, has a website with excerpts. For many examples of that phenomenon, see our pages on intellectual property/technology and free speech/media law.
Update: copyrightable yoga sequences
A federal judge ruled last month that the current state of intellectual property law does not necessarily preclude Bikram Choudhury’s claim to copyright over a particular sequence of yoga postures; litigation continues in the case (see Feb. 9, 2004). (“Yoga Is Focus in Groundbreaking Copyright Case”, PrimeZone/Linux Insider, Apr. 9). The Seattle Times (“Download”, Apr. 4) notes that Choudhury’s adversaries, a group of yoga instructors calling themselves Open Source Yoga Unity (OSYU), say they have banded together to fight the “litigious position of Bikram Choudhury”: “Hmmm, you have to wonder what that position might look like in the studio.”
“Garbage Plate” vs. “Plat du Refuse”
In Rochester there’s a food fight going on in court over a dubious local culinary specialty, the “Garbage Plate”, which consists per AP of “a heaping platter of hot dogs or hamburger, home fries, macaroni salad and baked beans smothered in a meaty hot sauce”. Nick Tahou’s restaurant has held a registered trademark to the Depression-era dish since 1992 and may fear, like the promoter of the breakfast health food in the Saki story, losing its market supremacy once rivals introduce yet more unpalatable-sounding concoctions. Copycat platters sold by other Rochester restaurants include Messy Plate, Sloppy Plate, Dog Dish and Plat du Refuse. (Ben Dobbin, “In Rochester food fight, ‘Garbage Plate’ takes on ‘Plat du Refuse'”, AP/Buffalo News, Apr. 9).
Can’t patent the crustless PB&J
Smuckers’ patent no. 6,004,596, which attempted to claim, inter alia:
A sealed crustless sandwich, comprising:
a first bread layer having a first perimeter surface coplanar to a contact surface;
at least one filling of an edible food juxtaposed to said contact surface;
a second bread layer juxtaposed to said at least one filling opposite of said first bread layer, wherein said second bread layer includes a second perimeter surface similar to said first perimeter surface;
a crimped edge directly between said first perimeter surface and said second perimeter surface for sealing said at least one filling between said first bread layer and said second bread layer;
wherein a crust portion of said first bread layer and said second bread layer has been removed.
was rejected by the Federal Circuit this week. Dennis Crouch has details in a series of three posts sufficiently comprehensive that it would be redundant for me to comment further. (Earlier posts: Jan. 30 and May 1, 2001). More: May 31.
Tulsa World v. bloggers
The Tulsa, Okla. newspaper has sent a cease-and-desist letter to blogger Michael D. Bates of Batesline for “inappropriately link[ing his] website to Tulsa World content” and insisted that he at once remove “unauthorized links to our content” (his posts on the subject). (It also complains about Bates’s having reprinting editorial items or portions thereof; he believes the reprinting was defensible under “fair use”). Blogger-lawyer Ronald Coleman, who recently launched the Likelihood of Confusion blog covering trademark, copyright and trade secret law, is assisting Bates and comments on the story (Feb. 18 and other entries). TechLawAdvisor also adds an observation. More on “deep linking”: Jan. 25, 2004 and links from there.
Model ships and planes
It isn’t just happening to trains (see Jun. 29): “For over half a century, kits have been sold that enable military history buffs to assemble scale models of military ships, aircraft and vehicles. But that era is coming to an end, as the manufacturers of the original equipment, especially aircraft, are demanding high royalties (up to $40 per kit) from the kit makers. Since most of these kits sell in small quantities (10-20,000) and are priced at $15-30 (for plastic kits, wooden ones are about twice as much), tacking on the royalty just prices the kit out of the market.” (James Dunnigan, “Lawyers Lay Waste to Military Models Industry”, Strategy Page, Feb. 3)(via Instapundit).