On March 7, 2013, the USPTO Trial and Appear Board conducted a hearing to consider whether the Redskins should lose trademark protection. At issue is Section 2(a) of the Trademark Act which prohibits marks that “may disparage or falsely suggest a connection with persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or bring them into contempt, or [...]

Oscar “Blade Runner” Pistorius, a world famous Paralympic track star, appeared in court on Tuesday to seek bail on the premeditated murder charge in the shooting of his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp. In the courtroom the prosecution and defense presented conflicting accounts of the shooting. While the prosecution depicted Pistorius as a calm and calculated [...]

Apple’s at is again. The company has file a patent meant to improve the quality of smartphone pictures.  The program would have the device doing the work for us by allowing for continuous image capture and then giving the phone the choice of the best picture.  The new camera implementation works by starting to take [...]

FASTRA, a bill that would provide free access to copyrighted published material that is based on public-funded research, was re-introduced to both houses of Congress.

Facebook, Inc., the world’s largest social networking site with nearly 1 billion users worldwide, has been slammed with a lawsuit claiming the site’s “Like” feature infringes on patents owned by a Dutch computer programmer. The “Like” feature allows users to link their Facebook accounts with third-party content.  Needless to say, you won’t see Joannes Jozef [...]

When purchased, a cellphone is “locked” into the network of the carrier through which it was bought.  In the past, cellphones have been “unlocked” by consumers so that they can work on any network–this has been useful for international travelers as well as people who just enjoy the freedom to choose a phone with whichever [...]

Is referring to your product as “the most brilliant” mere puffery, or a false claim? Zale Corporation, known for the Zales jewelry stores, is being sued for false advertising by Sterling Jewelers Inc., the parent company of Jared and Kay Jewelers, on the basis of this question.  Zales recently began advertising its “Celebration Fire” diamonds as [...]

Apple has recently been awarded a trademark for its store’s distinctive layout and design. Microsoft trademarked its own retail store design back in 2011.

Video game publisher THQ’s long bankruptcy saga continues. It has now been split up into separate chunks of either intellectual property or developers that it once owned. The chunks are being auctioned off and being scooped up by several different video game companies. The cheapest franchise license, Homefront, sold for around $500,000, which is a [...]

Basketball fans expecting to see the Miami Heat face off the San Antonio Spurs on November 29, 2012, were let down when they discovered that four of the Spurs players were nowhere to be seen.  The San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich unexpectedly sent home Tim Duncan, Danny Green, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli before [...]