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Suck it, El Jobso

A while back, attorneys for Apple concocted a creative argument for why jailbreaking your iPhone constituted an infringement of the copyrights in the device’s software, based on the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (more familiarly known as the “DMCA”).  The Library of Congress (as the body that promulgates regulations for enforcement of [...]

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IP Holding Companies – Why You Need One

If you’re running your own small business, and you don’t have a holding company for your intellectual property, you should make an appointment to have your head examined.  Creating a separate entity, solely for the purpose of owning your IP, is the quickest, easiest, and cheapest way to insure the goodwill associated with your business.

I [...]

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IOC Uses DMCA to Suppress Luge Accident Video

The opening day of the 2010 Winter Olympics was marked with tragedy when 21-year-old Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili, was involved in a fatal crash during a training run. The horrific event dampened the spirit of the international competition and colored the mood at the opening ceremonies later that night. As anyone would expect, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) sprung into action, responding to the accident with a multi-point [...]

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Space Coast Business Magazine prints one of my articles :)

One of the partners at my law firm, Mark Malek, and I put together a quick overview (800-words-or-less) about patents and copyrights for Space Coast Business Magazine.  They ran it in their January issue, and you can read the full text here.

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“Twenty-Something Arrested at Twilight Movie” or “State Law Copyright Enforcement?”

Earlier this month, 22-year-old Samantha Tumpach was arrested exiting a showing of the new douchey-little-vampire-kid movie, The Twilight Saga: New Moon.  No, she wasn’t detained for a psych eval, as anyone over the age of 16 should be for watching that movie.  (The only problem with implementing that policy is that state mental health facilities [...]

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Does Disney Own the Concept of a Castle?

It is a well known axiom of U.S. intellectual property law that there is no protection afforded to mere ideas.  In order to employ the force and power of our legal system to enforce your intellectual property rights, you must have something more concrete than an idea.  In patent law, for example, you must have [...]

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IP Overview: Copyrights Explained

United States copyright law protects original works of authorship that have been fixed in any tangible medium of expression.  Pretty much anything that you can write down or record is automatically protected from direct copying without your permission.  Everything from that flier for your company’s last promotion to the business plan that you spent weeks [...]

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Tactical IP's Latest Bully Award Nominations

For a couple of weeks now, Tactical IP has been putting together a list of companies that deserve recognition for their *outstanding* intellectual property enforcement efforts.  Below is their latest list of "IP Bully of the Month" nominees.  You can check out all the recent entries here.  Feel free to comment on who you think [...]

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And our "IP Bully of the Week" Award goes to...

Ralph Lauren — for sending DMCA take-down letters in an attempt to suppress some negative blog commentary about the photo below, e.g., comments like “Dude, her head’s bigger than her pelvis” (source).

You can read about what happened here and here.

UPDATE:  Ralph Lauren has issued a statement, apologizing for the poor photoshop job.  We’re still waiting [...]

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New Copyright Czar, Background in Trade and Education

Victoria the Not-so-Terrible

On Friday, President Obama appointed the first “Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator,” a new position created last year by the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act (a.k.a. the PRO-IP Act).  While many criticized that legislation as further enlisting U.S. law enforcement to do the dirty work of the RIAA and MPAA, [...]

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