They said it couldn’t be done, but Kaufman & Kahn recently not only won summary judgment against a prolific cyber-squatter, but also won an award of statutory damages and attorney’s fees. Gregory Ricks, a renowned cyber-squatter, had registered the domain name justbulbs.com, and he’d done that because, frankly, my client named JUST BULBS had failed…
In May of 2016, a Facebook Live user named Kali Kanongataa offered the world something uplifting, graphic and intimate: the birth of his son for all the world to see. According to Kanongataa, he had originally attempted to share the live broadcast only with his Facebook connections, but mistakenly broadcast to all of Facebook — which includes every…
As readers may recall, we previously wrote about the confidentiality agreement imposed by then-candidate Donald Trump upon those who worked in his campaign. In that agreement, the workers literally were required to consider, as the definition of “confidential,” anything that Donald Trump determined, in his sole discretion, to be confidential. Now, he is President, and he…
Here’s the case of a dark, desert highway with, perhaps, a cool wind in your hair: The Eagles Ltd v. Hotel California of Baja. It concerns a hotel in Mexico that had been opened in the 1950s under the name Hotel California. The owners decided to stop using that name and retitled the property “The Todos…
Once upon a time, not too long ago, there was a contract and a client. The contract gave the client an option to buy a business based on obtaining three appraisals. After the first two appraisals were for the same amount, the seller told the client that he would waive the third appraisal. The seller tendered…
The other day a client sent me two pictures. One was of a someone else’s textile design, and the other was my client’s own rendering of it. The client said “We copied our design from their design. Can you tell us whether it’s infringing?” Rather than respond to the email, I called my client and reminded him about…
What two words are worth $500,000 each? In the case of HOVERBOARD® The Space Chariot, those two word are “UL Certified.” (Yes, HOVERBOARD is a federally registered trademark; while it appears to be on the road to becoming generic, that’s a topic for another day.) Why they are called HOVERBOARDs is beyond me. They clearly have…
Parties, events, and weddings are the lifeblood of working musicians. It’s money in the hand, as opposed to what might come out of royalties down the road. This incentive is what led a client to reach out to me recently; he had a great gig booked, was looking forward to it…and then the contract came. The event…
A lawsuit was recently filed in the Southern District of New York that isn’t exactly fascinating for its merits, but it does speak to the perennial issue of intellectual property rights: the erroneous but popular idea, even among commercial users, that “if it’s on the internet, it’s free to use!” In Bigelow v. Breitbart News Network,…
Anyone who has had the pleasure of riding outbound LIRR trains from New York’s Penn Station over the years probably remembers a memorable sight: the 5Pointz graffiti artist showcase emblazoned on the exterior walls of some aging factory buildings in Long Island City. Having reached at least a tacit deal with the owner of the…