In Frederick L. Allen; Nautilus Productions, LLC v. Roy A. Cooper, III, Governor of North Carolina, the shipwreck of the infamous pirate ship Queen Anne’s Revenge failed to deliver intellectual property riches its explorers had expected. The Queen Anne’s Revenge famously was run aground off the coast of North Carolina in 1717 — some say intentionally — by Edward…
Stevens v. CoreLogic is a copyright case recently decided in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In the case, several real estate photographers allege that CoreLogic, which provides a service to real estate brokers by providing pictures of homes that are for sale, removed the metadata from their photographs which helped to identify each photographer and…
In a recent case called Viacom v. IJR Capital, the issue centered around defendant’s plan to open a chain of restaurants called Krusty Krab — just like the fictional restaurant in Viacom’s SpongeBob Squarepants franchise. That perennial cash cow spans a wide variety of media outlets, including the original television series, a movie, a musical, and downloadable…
On April 19, Lance Armstrong was in the news again as he reached a settlement with the United States Postal Service for $5 million in a false claims suit that sought $100 million. The case, called Landis v. Armstrong, featured detailed accounts of the doping that professional cyclists take in order to compete at the highest world level —…
Many of my clients have been on the receiving end of misleading notices from companies pretending to be the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). These letters often contain details of the client’s trademark; the registration number; when it was filed; and accurate predictions as to when the next renewal is or what its status…
In the case of GoPro v. 360Heros, GoPro recently moved for summary judgment against the defendant for using their photographs and trademarks in connection with 360Heros’ competing project — one that utilizes GoPro’s technology. The court denied the motion for summary judgment stating that there were too many issues of material fact to determine the case…
The federal Court of Appeals for the Second District of New York rendered an interesting opinion in a case about trade dress. In Diageo North America, Inc. v. W.J. Deutsch & Sons Ltd. et al., the litigants (“Diageo” and “Deutsch,” respectively) are well established players in the spirits business — though Diageo dwarfs Deutsch in size, resources and one…
March is off to a roaring start at Kaufman & Kahn with new offices and an anniversary. Effective March 1, 2018, we moved to the following address (which is very similar to our prior address, but even closer to Grand Central Terminal): 708 Third Avenue, 19th Floor New York, NY 10017 U.S.A. (212) 293-5556 Our…
Tide laundry detergent has dominated the time-honored American tradition of Super Bowl ads this year with a tour-de-force of comedy writing and brand-bending parody. Presented by David Harbour (Hopper on Stranger Things and the titular role in Hellboy), the series of spots were made to look like other familiar brands, with one catch: The ads were not about…
Late in January 2018, a judge in New York’s Southern District denied summary judgment in a case involving trade secrets. The parties in Elsevier Inc. v. Doctor Evidence LLC are scientific publishing giant Elsevier and a medical analytics company called Doctor Evidence (DRE). When Elsevier sued DRE for breach of a professional services agreement, DRE asserted counterclaims…