Lululemon Athletica filed suit against Calvin Klein for infringement of three yoga pant patents.  The specific design elements in Lululemon’s complaint include the waistband and pant styles.  As the Canada-based Lululemon continues to expand in the U.S. market, the company is seeking unspecified damages, lost profits, and royalties in addition to an injunction barring the [...]

eBay has banned all sales of magic potions, spells, curses, and other forms of mystifying enchantment.  The new marketplace restructuring is part of a policy effort to build trust in its sellers and listings.  All witches, wizards, and muggles wishing to purchase a few good spells and potions for Halloween better stock up as the [...]

At least this time he’s not doing anything illegal – just possibly against IOC policy.  Photos for a Louis Vuitton ad campaign taken by Annie Leibovitz were leaked last week.  This could be a problem for Phelps as the IOC has a rule against athlete promotion of non-Olympic sponsors from July 18th to August 15th. [...]

The NYPD successfully challenged Twitter’s refusal to turn over account information for a user who threatened to carry out a mass shooting like the one in Colorado. Twitter initially declined, arguing that the threats were not specific enough to fit their privacy policy’s emergency exception. The court disagreed, issuing a subpoena to help the police [...]

Luxury retailers are fighting back against increasingly sophisticated online counterfeiters, with some success. The ABA Journal reports that companies like Deckers Outdoor Corp., Hermes, and Burberry have crusaded to remove fake sites and some have won multimillion dollar judgments in court. Even though retailers may not be able to collect the full amount of the [...]

Good news for embittered victims of the reviled patent troll: a proposed bill, The Shield Act, would require patent trolls to pay the legal costs if the court finds the lawsuit does not have a reasonable likelihood of succeeding.

YouTube users can request that videos be taken down if they infringe another’s copyright. When NASA posted a YouTube video of the Curiosity Rover landing on Mars, however, an infringer, Scripps, had it taken down for “copyright infringement.” Scripps is apparently a repeat offender that took down another NASA video in April. It’s unclear whether [...]

New York Times journalist Nick Bilton wondered why no one has stepped in to update Craigslist’s 1990s-era site design. It turns out Craigslist has been using copyright and trademark claims to fend off potential innovators. Most recently, Craigslist served Eric DeMenthon, founder of the site Padmapper, accusing him of trademark and copyright infringement.

French retailer Early Flicker has filed a trademark application with the Institut National De La Propriété Industrielle (INPI) for Anonymous’s logo and accompanying slogan.  The retailer seeks to register the mark for a variety of products, including clothing and handbags.  As expected, Anonymous is not happy with the application.