Happy public domain day: here's what copyright term extension stole from you in 2015; BoingBoing.net, 12/31/15

Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing.net; Happy public domain day: here's what copyright term extension stole from you in 2015:

"When Congress amended US copyright law in 1976, they extended the copyrights on works whose creators had produced them with the promise of not more than 56 years. Since then, almost nothing has entered the US public domain.

Every year, Jennifer Jenkins and Jamie Boyle at the Duke Center for the Public Domain list out all the works that today's artists would be free to work from -- as the creators who got their copyrights extended in 76 did -- except for the retroactive extension of copyright terms.

This year, we lost a lot of good stuff."

Guest blog by Deputy Director Russell Slifer; USPTO Director’s Forum Blog, 12/31/15

USPTO Director’s Forum Blog:

"Guest blog by Deputy Director Russell Slifer

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of our stakeholders and employees for their patience and support as we worked to repair USPTO operations to full functionality. I also want to extend our sincere appreciation to the hundreds of employees, contractors, and service providers who have been working around the clock, through the holidays, to restore operation of thousands of servers, network switches, firewalls, databases, and their connections.

The USPTO contracts, through service providers, for clean uninterrupted power from state of the art, redundant, uninterrupted power supplies for our data systems. On December 22, both of these power supplies were damaged, resulting in a complete power outage to our data systems. Analysis of the damage over the last week confirms our earlier assessments and eliminates any concerns of foul play. We will take this opportunity to work with our service providers to ensure that lessons are learned and improvements are made.

We regret that any interruption occurred, and we strive to provide service equal to the best in government and industry. The USPTO continues to invest in improving our IT systems and many of these improvements allowed the agency to bounce back more quickly. I am proud to say that the USPTO teams returned operation to many systems as early as the next day, successfully restored data from our backup systems, and made all the necessary hardware repairs to return to nearly 100 percent operations by December 28th. Thanks to the tireless dedication of so many people, the USPTO is again operating on an uninterrupted power supply."

Quentin Tarantino Sued Over ‘Django Unchained’ Alleged Copyright Infringement; Variety, 12/30/15

Dave McNary, Variety; Quentin Tarantino Sued Over ‘Django Unchained’ Alleged Copyright Infringement:

"Quentin Tarantino, The Weinstein Company and Columbia Pictures have been accused of copyright infringement through their 2012 movie “Django Unchained.”

The filmmaker and the distributors were named as defendants in a lawsuit filed on Dec. 24 in federal court in Washington, D.C., by Oscar Colvin, Jr. and his son Torrrance J. Colvin. The Colvins assert that the defendants have infringed on the copyright of their screenplay “Freedom,” citing what they allege are extensive similarities to Tarantino’s Oscar-winning script for “Django Unchained.”"

Jeb Abandons Jeb!; Mother Jones, 12/23/15

Russ Choma, Mother Jones; Jeb Abandons Jeb! :

"Last winter, months before Jeb Bush announced he was running for president, a Miami intellectual property attorney filed a trademark request for the word "Jeb!" on behalf of a mysterious Delaware corporation called BHAG LLC. As we discovered this summer, BHAG was an acronym for Big Hairy Audacious Goal. This phrase came from one of Bush's favorite business management books, and when he was governor he used this term to motivate his underlings. It wasn't until Bush, as a declared candidate, filed his financial disclosure form in July that the world learned he directly owned BHAG.

One of BHAG's few activities was to trademark "Jeb!" As is par for the course, the US Patent and Trademark Office accepted the submission and requested additional information before it would grant the trademark. But according to that office, on November 9 Bush's application was officially abandoned. Technically, Bush has until January 9 to restart the process, but for now the name is not trademarked and open for anyone else to try to grab."

Crowdfunded ‘Star Trek’ Fan Film Accused of Copyright Infringement; Wall Street Journal, 12/30/15

Jacob Gershman, Wall Street Journal; Crowdfunded ‘Star Trek’ Fan Film Accused of Copyright Infringement:

"The lawsuit, which Hollywood Reporter wrote about, claims the fan film incorporates “innumerable” copyrighted elements of Star Trek, from the Federation starship bridge to the Vulcan and Klingon races."

'Game Of Thrones' Is The Most Pirated TV Show Of The Year, Again; Huffington Post, 12/28/15

Todd Van Luling, Huffington Post; 'Game Of Thrones' Is The Most Pirated TV Show Of The Year, Again:

"The life of a pirate is traditionally full of untimely death, and 2015 was no exception. For the fourth year in a row, Internet pirates looted streams of the show where everybody dies, "Game of Thrones.""

America's Orchard? Adams County eyes fruit trademark; Hanover Sun via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 12/25/15

Chris Cappella, Hanover Sun via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; America's Orchard? Adams County eyes fruit trademark:

"The way Idaho is associated with potatoes, or Napa Valley, Calif., is associated with wine, Adams County, Pa., could be associated with its own signature identity, said Marty Qually, county commissioner.

That identity could be America’s Orchard, a trademark proposed by the Adams County Office of Planning and Development for the fruit belt region in western Adams County, Mr. Qually said.

“It’s an effort to really kind of brand the fruit belt in Adams County as being something significant on a national level, which we all know it is,” he said. “We have something that is unique to the nation, so this is America’s Orchard.”...

The planning and development office started working on the trademark about a year ago, Ms. Clayton-Williams said. After research and ideas were complete, the trademark was submitted to the U.S. Trademark and Patent office in October. By mid-February, they expect to have a final decision on approval, she said.

The group anticipates the trademark being approved because they don’t believe it’s currently in use, Ms. Clayton-Williams said. As that process comes to an end, the office is looking to create a trademark branding advisory committee for local stakeholders, she said.

The goal of the committee would be to create a logo and sustainable model for the trademark, Ms. Clayton-Williams said."