Anandashankar Mazumdar, Bloomberg Law; Play-Doh Scent Registration May Serve As Trademark Model
"Trademark attorneys usually handle registrations online. But the
lawyer for toy maker Hasbro Inc. faced a problem that no computer could
solve.
Lawyer Catherine M.C. Farrelly was trying to get a
trademark registration for the iconic scent of Play-Doh, the modeling
compound that has been sold as a children’s toy since 1956. The Patent
and Trademark Office requires a specimen of any trademark, so the scent
had to be sent. Farrelly, of Frankfurt, Kurnit, Klein & Selz PC, New
York, told Bloomberg Law that she sent the application in February 2017
with a note that a box of Play-Doh was on its way by overnight
delivery.
Hasbro Inc.’s success in getting a trademark
registration in May 2018 for the smell of Play-Doh might serve as a
model for lawyers tasked with securing aroma-related trademarks,
trademark lawyers told Bloomberg Law."
Sunday, June 24, 2018
The sudden rush of vulgar trademarks; The Boston Globe, June 23, 2018
The sudden rush of vulgar trademarks
"There are now at least three different kinds of marks which can be registered without challenge. The first category includes marks that comprise, well, hate speech — the name of the pro football team in Washington, as an example. The second falls into Tam’s context — self-referential marks.
But the third group is different. Like a team playing defense, these trademark owners seek to register marks to keep the rest of the public from doing so.
In perhaps the most surprising result of the court’s ruling, the applicants for several of the most offensive terms did so not to sell merchandise, but to stop others from doing the same."
"There are now at least three different kinds of marks which can be registered without challenge. The first category includes marks that comprise, well, hate speech — the name of the pro football team in Washington, as an example. The second falls into Tam’s context — self-referential marks.
But the third group is different. Like a team playing defense, these trademark owners seek to register marks to keep the rest of the public from doing so.
In perhaps the most surprising result of the court’s ruling, the applicants for several of the most offensive terms did so not to sell merchandise, but to stop others from doing the same."
This guy's invention got U.S. Patent No. 10 million; Marketplace, June 19, 2018
; This guy's invention got U.S. Patent No. 10 million
"Today marks a milestone of in the American innovation economy. Back in 1836, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued patent No.1 under the current numbering system. It took 155 years to get up to patent No. 5 million and then just another 27 years to issue 5 million more. Patent number No. 10 million was issued this afternoon for something called "Coherent Ladar Using Intra-Pixel Quadrature Detection." The technology is owned by Raytheon, and it was invented by Joseph Marron, a principal engineering fellow at the company's Space and Airborne Systems division. He talked with Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal about his invention. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation..."
"Today marks a milestone of in the American innovation economy. Back in 1836, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued patent No.1 under the current numbering system. It took 155 years to get up to patent No. 5 million and then just another 27 years to issue 5 million more. Patent number No. 10 million was issued this afternoon for something called "Coherent Ladar Using Intra-Pixel Quadrature Detection." The technology is owned by Raytheon, and it was invented by Joseph Marron, a principal engineering fellow at the company's Space and Airborne Systems division. He talked with Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal about his invention. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation..."
Nathan Myhrvold: ‘Nasa doesn’t want to admit it’s wrong about asteroids’; The Observer via The Guardian, June 24, 2018
Zoe Corbyn, The Observer via The Guardian; Nathan Myhrvold: ‘Nasa doesn’t want to admit it’s wrong about asteroids’
"In 2000, you left Microsoft and set up Intellectual Ventures, which primarily buys and licenses patents. The business is often vilified as one of the world’s biggest “patent trolls”. Why do you think people find it so loathsome?
I fundamentally think what we do is good. It is hard for me to get too worked up about figuring out why it is bad. Any patent holder who enforces their rights gets called a patent troll. Silicon Valley feels very threatened by anything that could challenge its authority. If you are one of the big companies, like Google or Apple, almost no one can challenge you in the market that you’re in. But if somebody has a patent, they can ask for a bunch of money. The more you can get a return from an invention, the better off the world will be. It will lead to more inventions being funded and more inventing...
President Trump is going after China’s intellectual property theft. Given your experience, can he succeed in curbing it?
The theft of intellectual property by Chinese companies is a very serious issue. It’s not just private companies in China or little companies. A large amount of it is state-owned enterprise. So, it really is the Chinese government doing it. Exactly how to solve that issue, I don’t know. You need the Chinese government to be very serious about it, but so far they haven’t been. In my experience in business, you mostly do better with negotiating in quiet diplomacy, not with brinksmanship. But I’ve never built luxury hotels and golf courses. Maybe it is different there."
"In 2000, you left Microsoft and set up Intellectual Ventures, which primarily buys and licenses patents. The business is often vilified as one of the world’s biggest “patent trolls”. Why do you think people find it so loathsome?
I fundamentally think what we do is good. It is hard for me to get too worked up about figuring out why it is bad. Any patent holder who enforces their rights gets called a patent troll. Silicon Valley feels very threatened by anything that could challenge its authority. If you are one of the big companies, like Google or Apple, almost no one can challenge you in the market that you’re in. But if somebody has a patent, they can ask for a bunch of money. The more you can get a return from an invention, the better off the world will be. It will lead to more inventions being funded and more inventing...
President Trump is going after China’s intellectual property theft. Given your experience, can he succeed in curbing it?
The theft of intellectual property by Chinese companies is a very serious issue. It’s not just private companies in China or little companies. A large amount of it is state-owned enterprise. So, it really is the Chinese government doing it. Exactly how to solve that issue, I don’t know. You need the Chinese government to be very serious about it, but so far they haven’t been. In my experience in business, you mostly do better with negotiating in quiet diplomacy, not with brinksmanship. But I’ve never built luxury hotels and golf courses. Maybe it is different there."
Article 13: Europe's hotly debated revamp of copyright law, explained; CNet, June 22, 2018
Katie Collins, CNet; Article 13: Europe's hotly debated revamp of copyright law, explained
"The European Union is trying to pass a hotly debated law on copyright. The European Copyright Directive has been two years in the making, and on June 20, the European Parliament's legal affairs committee voted to approve the draft legislation.
The vote happened less than a month after Europe's last big piece of internet-related legislation -- the General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) -- kicked in.
Both the Copyright Directive and GDPR could dramatically impact and change things about the internet as we know it. But they also differ significantly, not just in scope, but also in how they're viewed and received by the world beyond Brussels."
"The European Union is trying to pass a hotly debated law on copyright. The European Copyright Directive has been two years in the making, and on June 20, the European Parliament's legal affairs committee voted to approve the draft legislation.
The vote happened less than a month after Europe's last big piece of internet-related legislation -- the General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) -- kicked in.
Both the Copyright Directive and GDPR could dramatically impact and change things about the internet as we know it. But they also differ significantly, not just in scope, but also in how they're viewed and received by the world beyond Brussels."
Europe Approves 'Wildly Dangerous' Copyright Rules; Forbes, June 20, 2018
Emma Woollacott, Forbes; Europe Approves 'Wildly Dangerous' Copyright Rules
The move raises the specter of a 'tax' on linking to other sites and automated censorship of material identified as violating copyright. However, despite fierce opposition, the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) has approved the controversial Articles 11 and 13 of the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on Copyright in the Digital Single Market.
Article 11, narrowly approved by 13 to 12 votes, requires any site linking to a third-party site with a snippet to adhere to an astonishing 28 separate copyright laws, or else pay for a license to provide the link...
Article 13, meanwhile, was approved by 15 votes to 10 and requires any site which allows users to post material to check it all against a database of copyrighted works, and even to pay for the privilege of accessing the database."
"The whole internet is set to be subject
to ContentID-type filtering in Europe, thanks to new copyright proposals
that have been voted through by the European Parliament.
The move raises the specter of a 'tax' on linking to other sites and automated censorship of material identified as violating copyright. However, despite fierce opposition, the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) has approved the controversial Articles 11 and 13 of the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on Copyright in the Digital Single Market.
Article 11, narrowly approved by 13 to 12 votes, requires any site linking to a third-party site with a snippet to adhere to an astonishing 28 separate copyright laws, or else pay for a license to provide the link...
Article 13, meanwhile, was approved by 15 votes to 10 and requires any site which allows users to post material to check it all against a database of copyrighted works, and even to pay for the privilege of accessing the database."
Friday, June 15, 2018
Protests greet Brussels copyright reform plan; BBC News, June 15, 2018
BBC News; Protests greet Brussels copyright reform plan
"The vote on the Copyright Directive comes before the European Parliament on 20 June.
It aims to rebalance copyright controls for the net age but critics say it is will stifle freedom of expression.
Net veterans have signed an open letter against the directive and others have made tools to aid lobbying efforts."
"The vote on the Copyright Directive comes before the European Parliament on 20 June.
It aims to rebalance copyright controls for the net age but critics say it is will stifle freedom of expression.
Net veterans have signed an open letter against the directive and others have made tools to aid lobbying efforts."
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