On May 2, 2019, the USPTO published an Examination of Marks for Cannabis and Cannabis-Related Goods and Services (which I’ll call the “CBD Guidelines”). The gist of it was that any application for a trademark on a cannabis-based product filed before December 20, 2018 (when the new Farm Bill was enacted), will be rejected. By…
The 2018 Farm Bill (formally The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018) made news for allowing the cultivation of hemp. Hemp is, of course, famous for being the working member of the cannabis family, while marijuana is more like the free-spirited snowboarder. As far as the government is concerned, the hemp-marijuana continuum is measured by the amount…
Dubay v. King is a case wherein the purported heir to the creator of the comic book The Rook from the 1960s and 70s sued Stephen King — and all of his publishers and movie producers — for alleged copyright infringement of The Rook through The Gunslinger series. The defendants made a motion for summary judgment in the Middle District of Florida.…
In a previous blog, I wrote about the case of DuBay v. King, in which the alleged heir of the rights to the comic book The Rook sued author Stephen King — and anyone who had ever been in the same room with him — for infringement. The case was dismissed on summary judgment after an analysis proved there…
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, or TTAB, issued an interesting ruling at the end of 2018. The TTAB is in effect the forum providing review of decisions rendered by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) trademark examining attorneys. The case in question is Rebecca Curtin v. United Trademark Holding Inc (“UTH”). UTH filed a trademark…
A U.S. Supreme Court decision interpreting what’s necessary to sue under the Copyright Act is both very interesting, and very important. For years, the federal Courts of Appeal have been divided into two schools of thought regarding when a copyright holder has standing to sue for infringement: Those Circuit Courts (like the Second Circuit, presiding…
Though it has a reputation for being cheaper and faster than litigation, arbitration was on trial in a recent district court decision. In CELLInfo v. “American Tower,” CELLInfo (CI) sued American Tower Corp (ATC) for, among other things, trade secret infringement and breach of contract. ATC responded by making a motion to dismiss the case or, alternatively,…
An interesting case came out of the District Court for the District of Columbia in November — and the least interesting thing about it is that it involves pornography. In Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. John Doe, the issue was whether a copyright holder can unmask an infringing user’s identity by subpoenaing the user’s internet service provider…
The U.S. District Court of New Mexico recently decided a case in which the infringement was obvious and the defendant was absent. Viacom v. Mark Anthony Baca and Guardian Anti-Bullying Campaign, Inc. concerned the trademark and copyright of the internationally famous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. The defendant was the driving force behind what was billed…
In Preston Wood v. RZ Enterprises, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) brought the house down. Architectural firm Preston Wood entered into an agreement with real estate developer RZ Enterprises in which Preston Wood produced architectural plans for a multi-building residential development. Then, much to Preston Wood’s chagrin, RZ Enterprises used a different architect. They not…