Copyright

Brooke Penrose and Deb Peckham


Brooke Penrose and Deb Peckham

In a recent decision, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB or Board) considered whether an application based upon an “intent to use” a mark in commerce may be predicated on proposed use with currently unlawful goods that may become lawful in the future.

In In re Joy Tea Inc., the applicant proposed to use its mark with, among other items, “tea-based beverages also containing CBD.” The Examiner refused to register the mark on the grounds that applicant’s claim of proposed use of a mark “in lawful commerce” was invalid due to not complying with the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act at the time the application was filed.

On appeal to the Board, the narrow question became: “[D]oes a trademark applicant’s belief that the cannabis goods specified in its trademark application will become federally lawful in the future provide a sufficient basis upon which to predicate its claimed ‘intent to use’ the mark in lawful U.S. commerce?”

The TTAB’s answer was “no.”

The TTAB upheld the Examiner’s refusal to register the applicant’s mark based on the longstanding prohibition against attempting to reserve a right in a mark, rather than having the ability to use the mark in commerce.… Keep reading

Our Top 5 Copyright Misconceptions DEBUNKED!


Copyright is a form of intellectual property rights providing owners of creative content with the exclusive right to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies, publicly perform, publicly display, and publicly transmit their work. These rights vest automatically at creation; however, generally, registration is required in order to enforce a copyright in court. Copyright protects “…original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression…” but the threshold for both creativity and originality has been interpreted as being very low – requiring only a minimal degree of creativity.

Unlike patent and trademark applications, copyright applications are low cost and subject to less vigorous examination, making them arguably one of the most user-friendly forms of intellectual property registrations for creators to seek without an attorney. However, misconceptions about copyright protection are pervasive. Below are our top five myths on copyright protection, debunked for your reading pleasure:

  1. “As long as I include a credit to the author, I do not need to ask for permission.”

Failing to credit an author of a work is considered “plagiarism” and can be a violation of someone’s copyright rights. However, the reverse – crediting the author to mitigate against a copyright infringement claim – is … Keep reading

New Cost-Efficient Copyright Registration Option for Influencers and Bloggers


Effective August 17, 2020, the U.S. Copyright Office will begin providing a special group registration option for “short online literary works” such as poems, short stories, articles, essays, columns, blog entries, and social media posts. This new registration option will allow applicants to cover up to 50 works with a single application and one filing fee.

In order to qualify for group registration for short online literary works:

  • There must be 50-17,500 words in each work;
  • Each work must be created by the same individual or individuals (if created jointly);
  • Each creator must be named as the copyright claimant for each work; and
  • Each work must be published online within a three-calendar-month period.

This new group registration option provides a streamlined, cost-effective path for influencers, bloggers, and other online content creators to register the copyright to their creative works.  While copyright registration is not technically required to own the copyright to one’s creative works, under U.S. law, copyright owners cannot file a lawsuit against infringement until they have received a registration, or refusal to register, from the U.S. Copyright Office. Owning a registration prior to a creative work being infringed may also provide options for the owner … Keep reading

When Paying for It Doesn’t Mean You Own It


The Conundrum of Works for Hire.

You are a small business.  You’ve hired a web developer to create your website, a marketing expert to author critical passages about your products and services, and you’ve hired a graphics person to design your business cards and signage.  You paid everyone, took delivery of and launched your beautiful new website.  The problem is, you don’t have any paper that confirms your developer, marketing guru, and graphic designer transferred the rights to the work to you.  “But wait,” you protest, “they cashed my checks and I have possession of the files.  Doesn’t that mean I own it?”

It’s natural to assume that if you engaged a service provider to create something for you, and you paid for it, it’s yours.  But that’s not what the law says, at least with respect to works that are eligible for copyright protection.  In fact, even if you have a writing that says the work shall be considered a “work made for hire,” that might not be sufficient to ensure that the work belongs to you.

What Does Copyright Protect?

Copyright protects original, creative works that are set out in a “tangible medium,” meaning they are written … Keep reading

What's In a Name?


Question: What do Sean Combs, J.K. Rowling, LeBron James, Lionel Messi, and Mark Wahlberg have in common? Two things, actually. First, they are all listed on the Forbes 2017 Celebrity 100 List; second, they all have gone to the trouble of registering their personal names as trademarks with the U.S Trademark Office. Indeed, of the first 20 celebrities on this “A” list, 19 have sought registration of their names as trademarks.

Trademark Protections For Personal Names

Under Federal law, everyone is entitled to seek protection of his or her name as a brand. The Lanham Act expressly provides that:

No trademark by which the goods of the applicant may be distinguished from the goods of others shall be refused registration on the principal register on account of its nature unless it … consists of or comprises a name, portrait, or signature identifying a particular living individual except by his written consent.

As indicated by the language of the statute, in addition to names, likenesses (portraits) and signatures of individuals are entitled to trademark registration. Several well-known entertainers have taken advantage of this right, including Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, and Anthony Hopkins … Keep reading

Choosing the Ideal Venue for IP Disputes: Recent Developments in Federal Case Law


The venue of a lawsuit can be a crucial, even dispositive, decision in managing the strategy of a successful outcome in an IP dispute. Defending a lawsuit on your home turf is often easier than in a distant state – defendants may be more inclined to settle lawsuits that are brought in inconvenient or hostile jurisdictions far from home. Moreover, venue can affect the adjudication of the merits of the dispute, since the various tests for infringement, and even the availability of injunctive relief, can vary by circuit. Accordingly, litigants will often try to tilt the possibility of success by considering all these variables before choosing where to file a case. However, recent developments in venue and jurisdictional law may impact a litigant’s ability to access favorable venues.

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC radically changed the law regarding venue of patent lawsuits. Until July 2017, about 40% of patent cases were brought in the Eastern District of Texas. In Heartland, the Supreme Court ruled that defendants in patent cases could be sued only where they are incorporated, or where they have a regular or established place of business. … Keep reading

IP Challenges for Ganjapreneurs


Like any industry, cannabusinesses and ganjapreneurs need to be thoughtful about protecting their proprietary material, in order to mitigate their risk of being ripped off – or worse, being accused of infringing other people’s rights. This post provides a brief overview of trademark and copyright issues to consider when developing and protecting your business in this space.

Protecting Cannabusiness Branding

If your product is king, then your brand is certainly queen. Your brand name, or trademark, tells consumers that a product or service comes from you and not your competitors. Accordingly, identifying and protecting the name of your new business could be fundamental to your success.

Some Quick General Rules on Trademark Protection
Regardless of your industry, under U.S. law, trademark rights involve a business’s use of a name, term, phrase, or logo in connection with the sale of specific goods and services. Generally, the first business to use a name in the marketplace is entitled to claim ownership of it. It is, however, possible to obtain rights beforehand, if an application for registration with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is filed. If your business adopts a trademark that is too similar to a mark used by an … Keep reading

The "Lowdown" on DMCA Regulations and Take-Downs


Chances are, if you have ever posted or published content on the web, or your company operates a website, you have heard the term “take-down notice.” Perhaps you have even been on the receiving end of such a notice, claiming that content on your website is owned by a third party, and that if you do not remove the content, your website will be taken down or a lawsuit will be filed claiming copyright infringement.

These notices are part of a mechanism available to copyright owners—including those who have not registered their copyrights— under a U.S. law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  This statute was enacted in the late 1990s as an attempt to bring the U.S. Copyright Act up to speed with society’s increased engagement via the Internet. The take-down procedure was introduced to provide a “safe harbor” for internet service providers that provide platforms for others to post content. Essentially, by following the procedures detailed in the DMCA, a website owner (or ISP) may be able to shelter him/herself from liability for infringement if a user posts infringing content, provided the website owner is not actively participating in or encouraging infringement and otherwise … Keep reading


You Can Trademark That?  They Can Own What? Who Knew?

There are many reasons we have IP laws – but primary among them is to encourage creative types like artists and inventors to profit from their efforts by way of royalties or exclusive rights.  To encourage those efforts, the intellectual property laws give authors and creators a relative monopoly over something they’ve created – a trademark, an invention, a script, a computer program, etc.  It’s like society is saying “you made it, so you can own it – at least for a while…”

But a natural tension immediately presents itself when we grant these exclusive rights.  Our culture wants to embrace, use and assimilate all that is cutting edge and new without having to ask for permission.  We take – no, we borrow Pharrell Williams’  “Happy” riffs and make them background music to our YouTube® videos of our cats and our dogs.  We expropriate “just a” screen capture from the Godzilla movie and create e-cards or embed them on our Facebook® pages.  Our post-90s, crowd sourced, media-centered sensibility has created this “if it’s out there it must be free” (or “it wants to be free”) ethos … Keep reading


Nora Ephron

Last night, Nora Ephron passed.   Already the internet andblogosphere are filled with this news and discussion of the loss of an incredibly prolific, comical and impactful artist.  While she is associated with a broader feminist agenda, her real contributions were in giving comic and touching voice to life experiences that happened to be shared primarily by women.   Her clarion call to women, especially younger women, to “…be the heroine of your life, not the victim,” might have been her most poignant gift.

But what, you may well ask, has Ephron’s passing to do with intellectual property or the law of information?  Well everything and nothing at once…  I was once asked to opine upon the intersection of intellectual property protection and gender.  I was flummoxed by this question at first, feeling that certainly there was gender blindness when it comes to IP rights and their exploitation.  But if you scratch beneath the surface — as Ephron always did — the story is much more complicated.It’s breathtaking to remember that women were still considered chattel until several hundred years ago.  Then, having thrown off that burden, we still could not own property for another huge block of … Keep reading