Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH), also known as reverse cybersquatting, is similar to trademark bullying. Both tactics involve the trademark owner using his trademark rights to unjustly interfere with another’s rights. With trademark bullying, a trademark owner uses his trademark rights to harass and intimidate another beyond what the law might be reasonably interpreted to […]
Category: Headline
In May 2010, my article, The Plight of PASPA: It’s Time to Pull the Plug on the Prohibition was published in the Gaming Law Review and Economics. The article focuses on the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which has completely denied forty-six states from adopting any type of state-sponsored sports betting scheme. The Act, which […]
Recently, I looked at the largest software piracy verdict ever. Now, I bring you the biggest attorney general consumer protection multi-state settlement ever reached with a food producer. Attorney generals from multiple states sued The Dannon Company, an American yogurt company that develops and markets dairy products in the United States. It is a subsidiary […]
Roughly 9,000 lawsuits have been filed against tobacco companies in Florida based on claims that for many years tobacco companies failed to warn smokers about the dangers and addictive capacity of cigarettes. The class of potential plaintiffs is huge, as many people across the country have smoked cigarettes at one point in their lives. The […]
Authors and scholars would love to be able to use unpublished works in their own works, but they must do so carefully so that they do not run afoul of copyright law and publisher restrictions. Historically, it has been tough to prove a fair use when dealing with unpublished works. There is no per se […]
Guccio Gucci founded the Italian fashion and leather goods label Gucci in Florence in 1921. Since then, it has become a very fashionable and profitable brand throughout the world. The brand holds many registrations for the trademark GUCCI throughout the world. It was not pleased to find out that someone had registered multiple domain names that […]
On November 29, I discussed Anheuser-Busch Inc.’s lawsuit against MLB. In its Complaint, Anheuser-Busch claimed that the company was entitled to a multi-year renewal on its beer-sponsorship rights based on negotiations that ended with a letter agreement in April 2010, and that MLB all of a sudden went back on its promise to renew, asking for […]
$1.3 billion is now the largest amount ever awarded to a plaintiff in a software piracy case, and the 23rd largest jury verdict. The plaintiff was Oracle and the defendant was SAP, a leader in business management software. Oracle claimed that SAP stole thousands of copies of Oracle software for over three years and then […]
I am not a huge fan of artichokes. Eating them takes too much effort, and I am not very impressed by their taste. However, I do know how to eat one, and I would expect that if someone asked me to serve him an artichoke, he would also know how to eat one properly, or […]
Trademark bullying watch! My first post on trademark bullying discussed the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) interest in eliciting suggestions to address these problematic litigation tactics. Legit claims are one thing; trademark bullying ties up the courts, costs people money that would be better spent on innovation, and takes up unnecessary time litigating. My […]