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 […]
Major League Baseball has a battle on its hands. One of its main sponsors, Anheuser-Busch Inc., has filed a lawsuit against MLB, claiming 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 […]
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 […]
Earlier this week, I talked about trademark bullies, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) concern that the practice of bullying is getting out of hand. Would you file the following lawsuit into the category of bullying? The Los Angeles Dodgers is giving Brooklyn Burger a hard time about its use of the classic […]
Anyone who has taken 1L Torts class is not surprised that a 4-year-old can be sued in a court of law. In fact, anyone versed in the law might not be shocked and appalled should a 4-year-old be found guilty in a tort action. How could one forget the case of Garratt v. Dailey, where […]
No one likes a bully, and that includes “trademark bullies.” One definition of “bullying” is, to treat in an overbearing or intimidating manner (synonym = intimidate). So how exactly does one intimidate others with trademarks? Through aggressive litigation tactics by those with power against those with limited resources. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) […]
When a trading card company uses a professional athlete’s picture on one of its cards, it needs to first have permission from the athlete before printing the cards and selling them to the public for profit. Karim Abdul-Jabbar is ready to put up a fight against the Upper Deck Inc. after the company released cards […]
Tom Condon, who is an agent in the football division at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), has filed a lawsuit in federal court against former client, Ryan Pickett. Condon claims that Pickett owes the agent $83,600 in unpaid agent fees, and wants the court to confirm and enforce an arbitrator’s order stating such is true. The […]