On September 5, 2012, the Southern District of New York concluded what is hopefully the final chapter of a trademark battle between Second Avenue Deli in Manhattan and the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Judge Engelmayer denied the deli’s motion to reconsider the final judgment issued July 5th, where the court ruled largely in [...]

Critics, linebackers, and Mark Sanchez are not Tim Tebow’s only competition. Tim Tebow has already found his name at the center of several hotly contested intellectual property disputes.  Before Tebow even received his new playbook from the New York Jets, a controversy erupted in federal court in Lower Manhattan between sports merchandise moguls Nike and [...]

Daniel Boulud, the world-renowned chef, is suing a Buffalo music club and restaurant for trademark infringement.  Boulud wants the owners of Duke’s Bohemian Grove Bar to stop using the name DBGB, according to a lawsuit filed in Federal Court in Manhattan. Boulud’s complaint claims he claimed the name after he opened DBGB Kitchen & Bar [...]

To a group of movie investors, Keeper of the Pinstripes sounded like an ideal business venture. Capitalizing on nostalgia for old-timers Yankee baseball, the film was to depict the “interior and exterior of the ‘old’ Yankee stadium [for one] final public appearance,” and tell the story of “a mysterious room hidden within the depths of [...]

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past two weeks, odds are you have heard of Jeremy Lin and the Linsanity bringing Madison Square Garden to its feet.  Thanks to Lin, the Knicks have won eight of their last nine games (the Knicks face the Nets tonight).  Lin’s story is one for the [...]

This blog’s tech editor started doing yoga recently. Sure she’s, like, 10 years behind, but late is better than never right? Knowing nothing about yoga she started sampling different studios and even tried doing Bikram Yoga which is the 90 minute, twenty-something poses in a 105-degree-room yoga. It was difficult! It was sweaty! But mostly [...]

A new ten-year pilot program that directs patent cases to a select group of judges within each participating federal district is finally underway in the Southern District of New York.  The bills establishing the program took a few years to make their way through Congress, and the Southern District was selected back in June to [...]

Stop the train presses. The uniform font of the NYC subway system signage is Helvetica. But since the “9/11 memorial” has become its own brand, and is printed in its own font, NY historians and journalists wonder “where will [branding] stop?” Insert “subway stop” pun here. But as it stands, MTA officials do not believe [...]

“[A] litigious Clinton Street resident has waged epic David-vs-Goliath battles against corporate fashion brands eager to cash in on the neighborhood name. Unfortunately for them, Robert Lopez owns the trademark to ‘Lower East Side,’ and has since the mid-nineties. Previous legal pursuits to protect the grassroots brand included cases against J. Crew, Urban Outfitters, Payless [...]

The oft-maligned production of the Broadway musical “Spiderman: Turn Off the Lights” will face off with former star, Tony award winner Julie Taymor in a battle for royalty payments.  Taymor argues she led development for the musical, while producers argue she was fired due to a breach of contract.