Responsible Enforcement: How To Handle Trademark Disputes Effectively; Forbes, March 15, 2018

Art Neill, Forbes; Responsible Enforcement: How To Handle Trademark Disputes Effectively

"Co-author Teri Karobonik contributed to this post*

There are many different types of legal disputes that you might encounter when you own intellectual property. Trademark law protects consumers from confusion regarding the origin or source of a product or service. Trademarks can end up being a significant asset for your business because over time, your customers will be able to identify with the company. Your branding choices can make or break your business, and your trademarks will help you build that brand.

This means that you as a business owner should know what kind of protection your trademarks get you, how to maintain and use your trademarks (and those of another company), and when you should take action against someone using your trademarks. Trademarks can be expensive to get, more expensive to protect, and disastrous to your business if you lose protection. Because of these factors, trademark over-enforcement has become a bit of an epidemic, but it doesn’t have to be that way!

In the second part of this multi-part series (see part 1 on handling copyright infringement here), we provide some key tips and action steps for enforcing your trademarks responsibly online."

Why an Indian hotel startup is taking the difficult route of filing patents; Quartz, March 28, 2018

Ananya Bhattacharya, Quartz; Why an Indian hotel startup is taking the difficult route of filing patents

"India and patents

High costs, lengthy processing periods, and a general lack of awareness are huge deterrents for startups eyeing patents in India. Gaps in the system, like a shortage of examiners, have caused hundreds of thousands of applications to pile up.

“Filing patents is common practice in other parts of the world but the importance of filing patents has only of late become apparent to startups in India,” said Anindya Ghose, the Heinz Riehl professor of business at New York University. Shorter processing times for intellectual property (IP) rights applications, an 80% rebate on patent fees for startups, and more transparency around the system are helping.

However, the country is still ranked an unimpressive 44th out of 50 in a score of IP robustness compiled by the US Chamber of Commerce (pdf) this year. “India’s score continues to suggest that additional, meaningful reforms are needed to complement the Policy,” the federal entity said."

Google loses Android battle and could owe Oracle billions of dollars; CNN Money, March 27, 2018

Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN Money; Google loses Android battle and could owe Oracle billions of dollars

"Google isn't the only company that stands to lose from this decision. Many others rely on open-source software to develop their own platforms. Tuesday's ruling means that some will either have pay to license certain software or develop their own from scratch.

"The decision is going to create a significant shift in how software is developed worldwide," Carani said. "It really means that copyright in this context has teeth."

"Sometimes free is not really free," he added."

Illuminating the Profession: Women in Copyright; Landslide, A Publication of the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law, March/April 2018

[Kip Currier: The new issue of Landslide magazine, a digital and print publication of the Intellectual Property Law Section of the American Bar Association (ABA), has a fascinating interview of 6 female copyright experts. Ralph Oman, a former U.S. Register of Copyrights (1985-1993) and a copyright law professor at George Washington University Law School, poses intriguing copyright-related questions, of interest to copyright wonks and would-be copyright practitioners: from the future of copyright in the digital age, to copyright cases that were decided “right” and those decided “wrong”, to “the number one legislative copyright priority in this Congress?”, and more.

Unfortunately, the full article is only available for members of the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law. In my view, this article could and should have been made freely accessible future  to reach a much wider audience and showcase these outstanding and inspiring role models and leaders in copyright law, representing a wide range of sectors and copyright areas. [C'mon ABA, I get that you want to have a paywall for the IP Section of ABA, but how about providing some limited access or a few articles from an issue. The article's called "Illuminating the Profession: Women in Copyright", so why not further that aim by making the article accessible to more people and attracting more women to IP careers?!]

The six copyright luminaries are, in alphabetical order, June Besek; Dale Cendali; Mary Rasenberger; Kate Spelman; Francine Ward; Nancy Wolff. ]

"COVER STORY

Illuminating the Profession: Women in CopyrightBy Ralph Oman

Meet the copyright stars! Get to know some of the outstanding attorneys who practice copyright law."

What Stake China Has In American Intellectual Property; All Things Considered, NPR, March 23, 2018

All Things Considered, NPR; What Stake China Has In American Intellectual Property

"NPR's Audie Cornish speaks with Scott Kennedy, a specialist on China's economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies about China's stake in American intellectual property."

What’s Intellectual Property and Does China Steal It?; Bloomberg, March 22, 2018

Grant Clark and Shelly Hagan, Bloomberg; What’s Intellectual Property and Does China Steal It?

"2. What did Trump do?

In his first trade action aimed directly at China, Trump ordered that tariffs be imposed on a broad range of goods, which could include everything from tennis shoes and baseball hats to lingerie and consumer electronics. The U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has 15 days to propose a list of goods that will face higher tariffs. The levies would apply to about 10 percent of the value of China’s exports to the U.S., but aren’t restricted to products the U.S. says China made in violation of American IP. Trump is also directing officials to pursue a World Trade Organization complaint against China for discriminatory licensing practices and to propose new restrictions on Chinese investments within 60 days to safeguard strategic U.S. technology.

3. What’s the rationale for all this?

Lighthizer just completed a seven-month investigation into China and intellectual property at Trump’s direction. The $50 billion figure is based on U.S. estimates of the lost corporate earnings caused by China’s alleged IP theft or forced technology transfers. U.S. officials were said to find strong evidence that China uses foreign-ownership restrictions to compel American companies to switch technology to local firms and that China supports and conducts cyberattacks on U.S. companies to access trade secrets."

Celebrating Fair Use Week: An Interview With Peter Jaszi; Above The Law, March 1, 2018

Krista L. Cox, Above The Law; Celebrating Fair Use Week: An Interview With Peter Jaszi

"Peter Jaszi is a professor emeritus at the American University Washington College of Law and an expert in copyright law and fair use. His distinguished career has included numerous projects designed to promote the understanding of fair use in various communities. He is also the co-author of the book, Reclaiming Fair Use: How to Put Balance Back In Copyright, a new edition of which will be published later this year by the University of Chicago Press.

Background

KC: One of the reasons that I love Fair Use Week so much is that it really provides an opportunity to celebrate a doctrine that we actually rely on every day in the digital era, whether people realize it or not. What are a couple of examples of how individuals use fair use in their day to day lives?

PJ: For good or ill, we live these days in a copyright-rich environment, surrounded by (and sometimes bombarded with) information objects that are at least technically within the subject-matter of copyright. In addition, contemporary copyright regulates many of the ways we interact with these objects. Under the circumstances, fair use makes it possible for us to get on with our lives and work without being serial copyright infringers. And while some of our fair use activities are done knowingly, many are not. When most of us clip a few lines from a news story or song lyric and send it to a friend on line, we don’t necessarily think that we’re exercising our fair use rights — but we are! Likewise, an investigative journalist who quotes extensively from the “smoking gun” memo that exposes a business conspiracy may be thinking in terms of press freedom, but it is fair use that animates the general principle. Anyone who dabbles in remix culture is a fair use beneficiary, and those of us who teach and learn in physical or virtual classrooms would be lost without it. Artists in all media rely constantly on fair use — for a current example, consider the powerful final sequence in the 2017 The Florida Project (which was robbed in the Oscar nominations). Fair use undergirds the system by which blind readers receive accessible copies of texts, helping to fulfill the aspirations of the Americas with Disabilities Act. And I could go on. Instead, let me recommend this year’s ARL infographic on the applications of fair use, which tells the story better than I ever could."