November 24th 2008
There has been plenty of discussion on Useful Arts about what ICANN describes as the “revolutionary” landscape it is set to unleash. Some examples include: Life on Earth to Continue Despite ICANN, and Why Does Telnic Think Anyone Wants a Domain Named After The Phone? Tuesday morning at 9AM you can hear an impressive group […]
November 5th 2008
Dave Child is a web developer from Brighton, UK. He ran sites for Juno Records in London, and does online marketing. Along the way, he picked up the nickname Jack Daniels for the bottle he kept on his desk. So when he wanted to start a site to provide tech resources to other programmers, he registered […]
September 17th 2008
This is your invitation to attend a free webinar on the recent Tiffany v. eBay ruling and its impact on brands of all sizes, and those of us who support and promote them. (Since this event has already happened, please follow this link to listen and view the recorded event in its entirety, or hear […]
September 9th 2008
China’s noseless censor-mascots are back, and this time they’ve confiscated Microsoft’s Internet Explorer logo in their quest to intimidate Chinese net users. It’s being used on the very front page of the Xiamen Cyberpolice’s site. Can you imagine what their request for permission to use this iconic logo might sound like? “We’d like to take […]
September 7th 2008
Wylie Gustafson’s famous Yahoo yodel has been named the first soundmark in India. India defines a trademark as “a mark capable of being represented graphically and which is capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one person to those of others.” Yahoo used musical notation in its application to represent its famous “Yahoo” yodel. […]
August 14th 2008
A Belgian court has dismissed L’Oreal’s complaint that eBay is responsible for counterfeits sold in its auctions. The court said that eBay does not have a “general monitoring obligation” and that it is not required to police its site to prevent counterfeiting. This is the second such recent victory for eBay. Last month, a New York […]
August 7th 2008
Both Joe Camel and JC Penney have tried to reverse their fortunes by attempting to look like other brands that have seen greater success in recent years. But there’s a gossamer-thin line between imitation, homage and infringement. Few cartoon mascots are more hated than Joe Camel, who Reason online named the “most vilified cartoon character in history.” (This […]
July 18th 2008
American Airlines has privately settled its trademark suit with Google. Case number 4:07-cv-00487, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, is history. Both companies are tight-lipped about the confidential settlement. The timing of this settlement is so close to the related Tiffany v. eBay trademark ruling that it suggests a causative […]
July 18th 2008
Judge Richard Sullivan’s ruling against Tiffany’s varied claims of trademark infringement is fairly absolute. When word of the ruling reached the MIT Media Lab where I was speaking this week, the audience there was delighted. The unambiguous ruling for the right of efficient commercial speech and immunization for intermediaries who take good-faith precautions and adhere to DMCA […]
June 29th 2008
Nike has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS) in the Federal District Court for the District of Oregon over the use of the term “Dri-FIT.” Dri-FIT is a trademark of Nike.
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