SCOTUS To Hear From Band The Slants For Right To Trademark Name; Here & Now, WBUR, 1/17/17

Here & Now, WBUR; 

SCOTUS To Hear From Band The Slants For Right To Trademark Name

"The Asian-American band The Slants will appear before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to argue for full trademark rights to their name, which is a pejorative.

The Portland band has won its case in the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in which the court ruled that the Patent and Trademark Office and the Department of Justice is infringing on the group's rights to freedom of speech.

Here & Now's Robin Young speaks with Rebecca Tushnet (@rtushnet), professor of law at Georgetown Law School, about the conflict for rights to the name."

Five Steps You Can Take Now To Protect Your Company's Trademark; Forbes, 1/17/17

Forbes Legal Counsel, Forbes; 

Five Steps You Can Take Now To Protect Your Company's Trademark

"You've submitted an application for a trademark. But that doesn't necessarily mean you should sit back and relax. Other companies may be applying for trademarks that are strikingly similar to yours — or worse — your mark could be infringing on someone else's. So how do you go about preventing concerning situations like these?

Below, five experienced chief legal officers and law firm partners from Forbes Legal Council discuss the various steps you can take to proactively protect your trademark."

Library Experts Weigh in On Next Register of Copyrights; Library Journal, 1/12/17

Brandon Butler, Kyle K. Courtney, Mary Minow, Kevin Smith, Library Journal; 

Library Experts Weigh in On Next Register of Copyrights

"In the wake of the October 29 resignation of Maria Pallante, the former Register of Copyrights, the Library of Congress (LC) has put out a call to the public for input on the expertise needed by the next Register of Copyrights. (On January 17, Pallante will join the Association of American Publishers as president and CEO). The survey, posted on the LC website on December 16, invites the public to answer a series of questions about the knowledge, skills, abilities, and priorities that the incoming Register should possess...

LJ asked four library copyright experts to give their opinions on what they see as important considerations for the incoming Register of Copyrights, and for LC as well.

The survey will be open through January 31."

It's Copyright Week: Join Us in the Fight for a Better Copyright Law; Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), 1/16/17

Kerry Sheehan, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF); 

It's Copyright Week: Join Us in the Fight for a Better Copyright Law

"We're taking part in Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of the law, and addressing what's at stake, and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation...

Here are this year’s Copyright Week principles:

• Monday: Building and Defending the Public Domain. The public domain is our cultural commons and a crucial resource for innovation and access to knowledge. Copyright policy should strive to promote, and not diminish, a robust, accessible public domain.

• Tuesday: You Bought It, You Own It, You Fix It. Copyright law shouldn't interfere with your freedom to truly own your stuff: to repair it, tinker with it, recycle it, use it on any device, lend it, and then give it away (or re-sell it) when you're done.

• Wednesday: Transparency and Representation. Copyright policy must be set through a participatory, democratic, and transparent process. It should not be decided through back room deals, secret international agreements, or unilateral attempts to apply national laws extraterritorially.

• Thursday: 21st Century Creators. Copyright law should account for the interests of all creators, not just those backed by traditional copyright industries. YouTube creators, remixers, fan artists and independent musicians (among others) are all part of the community of creators that encourage cultural progress and innovation.

• Friday: Copyright and Free Speech. Freedom of expression is fundamental to our democratic system. Copyright law should promote, not restrict or suppress free speech.

Every day this week, we’ll be sharing links to blog posts and actions on these topics at https://www.eff.org/copyrightweek and at #CopyrightWeek.

If you’ve followed Copyright Week in past years, you may note that this year, we didn’t designate a specific day to focus on fair use. Fair use—the legal doctrine that permits many important uses of copyrighted works without permission or payment—is critical to the law’s ability to promote creativity, innovation, and freedom of expression. Fair use is a part of each of this year’s principles."

ARTIST TURNS CONTROVERSIAL TRUMP QUOTES INTO COMIC BOOK COVERS; Comic News via Comic Book Resources, 1/14/17

Anthony Nash, Comic News via Comic Book Resources; ARTIST TURNS CONTROVERSIAL TRUMP QUOTES INTO COMIC BOOK COVERS

[Kip Currier: Clever examples of fair use "transformativeness"--"remixing" bonafide Donald Trump quotes with actual copyrighted comic book covers that have been satirically transformed, both textually and visually--by cartoonist Robert Sikoryak.]
 
"Cartoonist Robert Sikoryak, work has appeared in “Raw,” The New Yorker and Nickelodeon Magazine, has transformed some of the more controversial statements by President-Elect Donald Trump into parody comic book covers in a project he’s called “Unquotable Trump.”"

Library of Congress and U.S. Copyright Office Roundup; Information Today, 1/10/17

Corilee Christou, Information Today; Library of Congress and U.S. Copyright Office Roundup

"Copyright Office Struggles

The overall picture at the LC certainly seems rosy. However, the U.S. Copyright Office is a different story. The office, led by then Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante, was attempting to fix its problems in 2016, but with its budget and IT systems both dependent on the LC, this was not a simple task. After only a month as the Librarian of Congress, Hayden removed Pallante from her position. She had been Register of Copyrights since 2011, after holding several positions at the Copyright Office since 2008. Never before has a Register of Copyrights been removed from his or her post by the Librarian of Congress.

Instead of taking the alternative position of senior advisor to the Librarian of Congress that Hayden offered her, Pallante resigned, effective Oct. 29. Reactions were both positive and negative."

Librarian of Congress Seeks Input on Register of Copyrights; Press Release, Library of Congress, DECEMBER 16, 2016 (REVISED JANUARY 11, 2017)

"DECEMBER 16, 2016 (REVISED JANUARY 11, 2017)Librarian of Congress Seeks Input on Register of Copyrights

Press Contact: Gayle Osterberg (202) 707-0020
Website: Librarian of Congress Seeks Input on Register of Copyrights (Survey) External

The public will have the opportunity to provide input to the Library of Congress on expertise needed by the Register of Copyrights, the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, announced today.

Beginning today, December 16, an online survey is open to the public. The survey will be posted through Jan. 31, 2017.

Link to survey: https://www.research.net/r/RegisterOfCopyrightsNR External
Deadline for submitting comments: Jan. 31, 2017

Input will be reviewed and will inform development of knowledge, skills and abilities requirements for the position.

Information provided through the survey will be posted online and submitters’ names will appear. Note that input will be subject to review and input may not be posted that is off-topic; contains vulgar, offensive, racist, threatening or harassing content; personal information; or gratuitous links to sites that could be considered spam. The Library’s complete comment policy can be viewed here: loc.gov/legal/comment-and-posting-policy/.

The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States—and extensive materials from around the world—both on site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov, access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov, and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov."