Justin Wm. Moyer, Washington Post; ‘We can change the meaning’: Trademarks filed for n-word after Supreme Court decision
"Gene Quinn, founder of the intellectual property blog IP Watchdog, said trademarking epithets to limit their use was a “laudable purpose,” but difficult to achieve.
To be maintained, trademarks must be used in interstate commerce, he said, and are awarded in different classes, such as clothing, food or video games. Anyone trying to erase these words from the marketplace would simultaneously need to put them into the marketplace."
Sunday, August 6, 2017
Saturday, August 5, 2017
Brush Yourself Off And Try Again: An Invention Story; NPR, August 4, 2017
Joe Palca, NPR; Brush Yourself Off And Try Again: An Invention Story
"We told the story of MD Brush in 2014. At that point, it had taken seven years to go from the idea for a new toothbrush to an actual product: seven years of designs, redesigns, re-redesigns, manufacturing obstacles, marketing stumbles and website crashes. When our story aired in August 2014, a production run of 100,000 MD Brushes was underway at a factory in Vietnam.
But not long after the first shipment arrived in the U.S., they ran into the dental industrial complex. One of the big toothbrush companies filed suit against them, accusing them of patent infringement."
"We told the story of MD Brush in 2014. At that point, it had taken seven years to go from the idea for a new toothbrush to an actual product: seven years of designs, redesigns, re-redesigns, manufacturing obstacles, marketing stumbles and website crashes. When our story aired in August 2014, a production run of 100,000 MD Brushes was underway at a factory in Vietnam.
But not long after the first shipment arrived in the U.S., they ran into the dental industrial complex. One of the big toothbrush companies filed suit against them, accusing them of patent infringement."
For Second Time, Appeals Court Hears GSU E-Reserves Case; Publishers Weekly, August 4, 2017
Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly; For Second Time, Appeals Court Hears GSU E-Reserves Case
"In what the plaintiff publishers’ attorney Bruce Rich called a “seemingly never-ending case,” an appeals court last week heard oral arguments in the long-running Georgia State University (GSU) e-reserves case for a second time. And judging by the court’s questions, the case could still be far from a conclusion.
In the hearing, which went for just over an hour, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, once again pressed attorneys for the fault lines in the decade-old copyright case case, with much of the hearing focusing on whether Judge Orinda Evans correctly evaluated the fourth factor of the four factor fair use test (the effect on the market), and then properly weighted that factor in making her fair use determinations."
"In what the plaintiff publishers’ attorney Bruce Rich called a “seemingly never-ending case,” an appeals court last week heard oral arguments in the long-running Georgia State University (GSU) e-reserves case for a second time. And judging by the court’s questions, the case could still be far from a conclusion.
In the hearing, which went for just over an hour, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, once again pressed attorneys for the fault lines in the decade-old copyright case case, with much of the hearing focusing on whether Judge Orinda Evans correctly evaluated the fourth factor of the four factor fair use test (the effect on the market), and then properly weighted that factor in making her fair use determinations."
Canada’s intellectual property strategy must play to the country’s strengths; The Globe and Mail, August 4, 2017
Dan Breznitz and Mark Fox, The Globe and Mail; Canada’s intellectual property strategy must play to the country’s strengths
"In the last 40 years, Canada has been acting as the open-source laboratory of the world – we funded and conducted the research, that is the prior art – and foreigners gladly patented it, gaining the property rights and profits. Nowhere is this disturbing phenomena clearer then in Artificial Intelligence. It is high time that Canada defend the openness of our open science and, at the same time, achieve all three of our national IP strategy goals: 1) generate and own more, and higher quality, patents; 2) defend and expand the freedom to operate for current and future Canadian entrepreneurs and companies; 3) educate Canadians to become the world's savviest users and producers of IPR."
"In the last 40 years, Canada has been acting as the open-source laboratory of the world – we funded and conducted the research, that is the prior art – and foreigners gladly patented it, gaining the property rights and profits. Nowhere is this disturbing phenomena clearer then in Artificial Intelligence. It is high time that Canada defend the openness of our open science and, at the same time, achieve all three of our national IP strategy goals: 1) generate and own more, and higher quality, patents; 2) defend and expand the freedom to operate for current and future Canadian entrepreneurs and companies; 3) educate Canadians to become the world's savviest users and producers of IPR."
Friday, August 4, 2017
Dunkin’ Donuts wants to leave a doughnut-sized hole in its name; Washington Post, August 4, 2017
Andrew deGrandpre, Washington Post; Dunkin’ Donuts wants to leave a doughnut-sized hole in its name
"Today, Dunkin’ Donuts is locked in a nationwide popularity contest with Starbucks and independent coffeehouses, aggressively competing for the loyalty of an increasingly calorie-conscious customer base concerned with staying fit, not just caffeinated. Doughnuts — while delicious — connote neither.
To that end, the Massachusetts-based chain is deploying a new marketing strategy. Its first vestiges appeared this week in Pasadena, Calif., where a new Dunkin’ Donuts storefront emerged bearing a new name and slogan:
"Today, Dunkin’ Donuts is locked in a nationwide popularity contest with Starbucks and independent coffeehouses, aggressively competing for the loyalty of an increasingly calorie-conscious customer base concerned with staying fit, not just caffeinated. Doughnuts — while delicious — connote neither.
To that end, the Massachusetts-based chain is deploying a new marketing strategy. Its first vestiges appeared this week in Pasadena, Calif., where a new Dunkin’ Donuts storefront emerged bearing a new name and slogan:
Dunkin’. Coffee and more.
Eighty-six the doughnuts! (Or, rather, “Donuts.”)
The branding experiment in Pasadena marks the start of a trial period during which the company will gauge customer response and evaluate whether to take the new name nationwide. The review is expected to stretch well into next year, the company said."
THE STAR WARS VIDEO THAT BAFFLED YOUTUBE'S COPYRIGHT COPS; Wired, August 2, 2017
Jeremy Hsu, Wired; THE STAR WARS VIDEO THAT BAFFLED YOUTUBE'S COPYRIGHT COPS
"Still, the Auralnauts say they have few options to fight what they view as unfair claims on their content. Koonce suggested possible Content ID improvements that could prevent the same false claims from being repeatedly filed against the same video by different claimants. “People need to protect their IP, but don’t give them all the power," he says.
A smarter profit-sharing system would differentiate better between, say, a video of Queen performing “Bohemian Rhapsody” or the same song playing in the background of someone's wedding video. “What is needed is a more nuanced approach to how stuff gets monetized,” says Robert Lyons, a former digital media executive who is now a visiting lecturer at Northeastern University in Boston.
In any case, Lyons suggests that the Auralnauts video has a very good chance of being protected under fair use legal doctrine—the legal concept that allows for music and video parodies, among other exceptions to copyright infringement. “I think that a mere five seconds of the title’s music in a work that clearly is transformative and [that] poses no threat to the commercial potential of the original work would have a very strong fair use defense,” Lyons says."
"Still, the Auralnauts say they have few options to fight what they view as unfair claims on their content. Koonce suggested possible Content ID improvements that could prevent the same false claims from being repeatedly filed against the same video by different claimants. “People need to protect their IP, but don’t give them all the power," he says.
A smarter profit-sharing system would differentiate better between, say, a video of Queen performing “Bohemian Rhapsody” or the same song playing in the background of someone's wedding video. “What is needed is a more nuanced approach to how stuff gets monetized,” says Robert Lyons, a former digital media executive who is now a visiting lecturer at Northeastern University in Boston.
In any case, Lyons suggests that the Auralnauts video has a very good chance of being protected under fair use legal doctrine—the legal concept that allows for music and video parodies, among other exceptions to copyright infringement. “I think that a mere five seconds of the title’s music in a work that clearly is transformative and [that] poses no threat to the commercial potential of the original work would have a very strong fair use defense,” Lyons says."
Thursday, August 3, 2017
To Protect Voting, Use Open-Source Software; New York Times, August 3, 2017
R. James Woolsey and Brian J. Fox, New York Times; To Protect Voting,Use Open-Source Software
"If the community of proprietary vendors, including Microsoft, would support the use of open-source model for elections, we could expedite progress toward secure voting systems.
With an election on the horizon, it’s urgent that we ensure that those who seek to make our voting systems more secure have easy access to them, and that Mr. Putin does not."
"If the community of proprietary vendors, including Microsoft, would support the use of open-source model for elections, we could expedite progress toward secure voting systems.
With an election on the horizon, it’s urgent that we ensure that those who seek to make our voting systems more secure have easy access to them, and that Mr. Putin does not."
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