Company sued EFF over “Stupid Patent of the Month;” EFF now flips the script; Ars Technica, April 13, 2017

Cyrus Farivar, Ars Technica; 

Company sued EFF over “Stupid Patent of the Month;” EFF now flips the script

"The Electronic Frontier Foundation has sued an Australian company that it previously dubbed as a "classic patent troll" in a June 2016 blog post entitled: "Stupid Patent of the Month: Storage Cabinets on a Computer."

Last year, that company, Global Equity Management (SA) Pty. Ltd. (GEMSA), managed to get an Australian court to order EFF to remove its post—but EFF did not comply. In January 2017, Pasha Mehr, an attorney representing GEMSA, further demanded that the article be removed and that EFF pay $750,000. EFF still did not comply.

The new lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco on Wednesday, asks that the American court declare the Australian ruling unenforceable in the US. Why? According to the EFF argument, the Australian ruling runs afoul of free speech protections granted under the United States Constitution—namely, that opinions are protected.

GEMSA attorneys have threatened to take this Australian court order to American search engine companies to deindex the blog post, making the post harder to find online."

Stopping trade secret theft in your organization; CSO, April 10, 2017

Frederick Scholl, CSO; 

Stopping trade secret theft in your organization

"The recent Google vs. Uber self-driving car litigation has brought trade secret theft into the news again. I have blogged on this topic before. In this post and the next three I will take a deeper dive into trade secret theft and how you can reduce the chance you will be the next victim.

Trade secret theft is one of the major cybersecurity risks of our time. Organizations now lose nearly $300 billion per year due to theft or misappropriation of intellectual property." 

The Charging Bull Sculptor Is Right. Fearless Girl Should Go.; Slate, April 12, 2017

Christina Cauterucci, Slate; 

The Charging Bull Sculptor Is Right. Fearless Girl Should Go.

"Artist Arturo Di Modica, who installed his bull sculpture under the cover of night after the 1987 stock-market crash, called on Wednesday for New York City authorities to remove the girl statue, saying it violates his rights as an artist...

Though it’s rarely been invoked, the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 protects artists from having their works destroyed, moved, or altered under specific circumstances. Di Modica may have been able to argue a violation of his copyright under VARA if he could convince a judge that the city modified his work or damaged its integrity in a way that harmed his reputation, which the city almost certainly did. But the law doesn’t apply to artworks created before the law’s enactment, meaning Di Modica will have to find another legal basis if he decides to sue the city."

'Charging Bull' sculptor calls for New York to remove 'Fearless Girl' statue; Guardian, April 12, 2017

Jamiles Lartey, Guardian; 

'Charging Bull' sculptor calls for New York to remove 'Fearless Girl' statue

"Siegel and Di Modica have asked the city of New York to remove the statue, which became something of a phenomenon when it was first installed earlier this year, and tied by many to the global Women’s March movement. They say the city should place the “Fearless Girl” somewhere else where it no longer relies on the “Charging Bull”. “The work is incomplete without Mr Di Modica’s Charging Bull, and as such it constitutes a derivative work,” Seigel said, noting that the statue of the girl, hands on her hips, only becomes “fearless” because of the much larger, aggressive bull.

Siegel pointed to a 1990 copyright statute that grants visual artists the right “to prevent any intentional distortion, mutilation or other modification of that work which would be prejudicial to [the artist’s] reputation”.

In addition to the removal of the statue, Di Modica was seeking unspecified damages from the city of New York. Siegel said, however, that his client had not filed a lawsuit yet and is hoping the city – specifically its mayor, Bill de Blasio – will come to the table with the artist in good faith. De Blasio recently extended “Fearless Girl’s” permit through March 2018 and has called it a symbol of “standing up to fear, standing up to power” and doing what’s right. Seigel said the “inescapable implication” was that Di Modica’s bull became “a force against doing what’s right”."

U.S. Companies Should Register Trademarks in Cuba Early; Boomberg BNA, April 7, 2017

Peter Leung, Bloomberg BNA; 

U.S. Companies Should Register Trademarks in Cuba Early

"The thawing of U.S.-Cuba relations means American companies should consider registering their marks in the island nation to head off trademark squatters, lawyers said.

The expectation of increased trade between the countries has led to more unauthorized registrations of trademarks used by American companies, Katherine Van Deusen Hely of Caribbean IP PLLC said April 5 at the American Bar Association’s Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference...

Timely registration is particularly important with Cuba’s first-to-file trademark system which differs from the U.S., where registration is based on earliest, continuous use of a trademark."

32nd Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference April 4-6, 2017, Crystal Gateway Marriott, Arlington, VA

Kip Currier: 

Attending 32nd Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference

April 4-6, 2017, 

Crystal Gateway Marriott, 

Arlington, VA

Sessions and events for Day 2, Thursday, April 6:

Thursday, April 6

7:30 am – 5:00 pm	Registration
7:00 am – 8:15 am	Women in IP Law Breakfast
8:30 am – 10:00 am	Patent: AIA Trials Before the PTAB
8:30 am – 10:00 am	Trademark: Shush - Are We Permitted to Say...?
8:30 am – 10:00 am	Copyright: Are The Times A-Changin' in Copyright Law?
10:15 am – 11:45 am	Patent: Patent Year in Review
10:15 am – 11:45 am	Trademark: Here Comes the Judge: Mock Preliminary Injunction
10:15 am – 11:45 am	Copyright: DMCA 101: Post-Lenz
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm	Keynote Speaker Luncheon Featuring: Maureen K. Ohlhausen · Commissioner · Federal Trade Commission · Washington, DC
1:45 pm – 3:15 pm	Specialty: The New Landscape of Trade Secrets
1:45 pm – 3:15 pm	Specialty: The (Gold) Stars Realigned: Post Brexit UK
1:45 pm – 3:15 pm	Specialty/Ethics: Ethics in IP: Interactive Round Tables
3:30 pm – 5:00 pm	Specialty/Patent: What Makes a Valuable IP Portfolio?
3:30 pm – 5:00 pm	Specialty: All the Crime We Cannot See
3:30 pm – 5:00 pm	Specialty/Ethics: Duty of Loyalty: Avoiding Conflicts of Interest in IP

32nd Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference April 4-6, 2017, Crystal Gateway Marriott, Arlington, VA

Kip Currier: 

Attending 32nd Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference

April 4-6, 2017, 

Crystal Gateway Marriott, 

Arlington, VA

Sessions and events for Day 1, Wednesday, April 5:

Wednesday, April 5

7:00 am – 5:00 pm	Registration
7:15 am – 8:30 am	Conference Connections New Members · First-Time Attendees · Young Lawyers
8:30 am – 10:00 am	Patent: Ten Lessons for Patent Prosecutors from Litigation
8:30 am – 10:00 am	Trademark: Get Ready for Cuba!
8:30 am – 10:00 am	Copyright: Legal Compliance... I Choose You!
10:15 am – 11:45 am	Patent: Ask the Office: Hot Topics from the US Patent and Trademark Office
10:15 am – 11:45 am	Trademark: Gripe Sites and Takedown Notices
10:15 am – 11:45 am	Copyright: Copyright 2016 at a Gallop
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm	Mark T. Banner Awards Luncheon
1:45 pm – 3:15 pm	Patent: Save the Date: Priority Practice Points
1:45 pm – 3:15 pm	Trademark: The USPTO Speaks: An Update from the USPTO and TTAB
1:45 pm – 3:15 pm	Copyright: Securitizing of Artists' and Athletes' Careers
3:30 pm – 5:00 pm	Specialty: Implicit in Your Practice
3:30 pm – 5:00 pm	Trademark/Copyright: Not in My Backyard: Blocking Infringement at the Real and Virtual Border
3:30 pm – 5:00 pm	Specialty: Cannabis: Examination of IP
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm	Reception: Opportunities for Publishing with the ABA-IPL Section
6:15 pm – 7:15 pm	Sponsor Reception
7:30 pm – 9:30 pm	Conference Reception: Taking it Back...To the 80s
9:30 pm – 10:30 pm	LGBT Diversity Dessert Reception