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 […]
Category: Intellectual Property
$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 […]
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 […]
Here is a sample definition of likeness – name, silhouette, personality, appearance, performance, depiction, portrayal, photograph and voice. It is an integral definition in many licensing agreements where one party hopes to be able to exploit the other party, usually for a hefty fee. What if you were not entitled to just compensation for the […]
On October 24, 1999, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). The UDRP incorporated by contract into registration agreements for .com, .org, .net and some other domain names. The focus was on regulating bad faith cybersquatting on trademarks. Clause 4 of the UDRP discusses the Mandatory […]
If you have an idea (a great idea) to create a website that allows visitors to watch and share YouTube videos together with their friends, you should consult an attorney to figure out how to embark on the venture without stepping on anyone’s toes. The last thing you want to worry about in a start-up […]
On its “About” page, The Pirate Bay describes itself as follows: The Pirate Bay is the worlds largest bittorrent tracker. Bittorrent is a filesharing protocol that in a reliable way enables big and fast file transfers. The website was founded by a Swedish anti-copyright organization and has gone through a few changes of ownership before […]
Is Facebook being a trademark bully, or is it really just trying to protect its intellectual property? In March 2010, Facebook sent small scale parody website Lamebook (some of the stuff on there is really funny) a cease and desist letter. Facebook had a problem with Lamebook’s name, mark, and look and feel of its […]
Imagine spending your time writing an article with the hope that it will be published on a popular website. Imagine the thrill when you find out the the website is going to publish your article. You are becoming a trusted source for that particular information. Perhaps you will be able to earn money by granting […]
Very talented athletes stand to make more money from off field/court/ice/etc. activities than what they earn based on performing in the trade that they are truly qualified. Agents, attorneys, and marketers attempt to find and negotiate these deals for their athlete clients. Often times, those deals are licensing agreements, or at least contain provisions that […]