U.S.P.T.O. Remains Open

By Kirk M. Hartung

Despite the shutdown of a significant portion of the federal government, the United States Patent and Trademark Office will remain open, at least for the short term.This government agency is self-funded through user fees, and therefore will continue business as usual for the next two weeks. If the government shutdown continues into February, the PTO […]

Global Intellectual Property Indicator in 2017 Published by WIPO

By Blog Staff

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published its annual report, Global Intellectual Property Indicator 2017, on January 8, 2018. The report is 226 pages long and contains mostly statistics and colorful graphs. Although it is not a “must read” for everyone, it is definitely an informative resource for anyone who is in the business of creating […]

The Mandatory Deposit Requirement of The Library of Congress: A Little Known and Little-Complied-With Law

By Mark D. Hansing

What is it? The United States Library of Congress says it has the largest collection of published works in the world. Housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, with warehouses elsewhere, estimates are on the order of 32 million catalogued books and other printed materials in 470 languages, and that many more […]

Sail On: Former Commodores Guitarist Fails to Establish Rights in Band’s Trademark

By Nicholas J. Krob

Who owns a band’s trademark when that band is composed of multiple people? And more importantly, what rights does a band member have in that trademark when they leave the band? Earlier this week, the Eleventh Circuit addressed these very questions in a case involving legendary funk/soul band the Commodores. The Commodores, famous for chart-topping […]

Music Publishing Company Sues Spotify for $1.6 Billion

By

Spotify has a growing copyright problem and as previously discussed on this blog (here and here) they are no stranger to copyright infringement lawsuits. Wixen Music Publishing Inc. recently filed a complaint seeking $1.6 billion in damages alleging copyright infringement. On December 29th, Wixen filed suit in California federal court claiming Spotify has repeatedly failed […]

Determining a “Joint Enterprise” in the Wake of Akamai’s Divided Infringement Standards

By Blog Staff

On December 19, 2017, the Federal Circuit released an opinion in Travel Sentry, Inc. v. Tropp, clarifying further the requirements for satisfying divided infringement, i.e. infringement involving multiple actors carrying out the claimed steps of a method patent where no single accused infringer has performed all the steps. The opinion stems from a series of […]

Patent Application Filed for ‘Take Me Home’ Spacesuit

Two weeks ago, Space.com’s Space Insider Columnist Leonard David reported that the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts has filed a patent application (Serial No. 15/164,264) for a self-return system to ensure spacewalking astronauts are safe. Draper’s research into spacesuits is funded by NASA. David explains that the self-return system determines a precise location of the […]

Survey Shows Academic Intellectual Property is Growing

Academic research effort continues to grow according to results from the annual survey of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM). The recently released survey of 195 universities, hospitals and other research institutions reflects increases in many areas of inventive efforts. The number of invention disclosures in 2016 increased 8.7% since 2012, and provisional patent […]

Scandalous and Immoral Trademark Ban Ruled Unconstitutional

Earlier today, the Federal Circuit ruled that the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions striking down the Lanham Act’s ban on “disparaging” trademark registrations also means that barring “scandalous” or “immoral” trademarks is unconstitutional. The ruling came in a case filed by Erik Brunetti, who appealed to the Federal Circuit in late 2014 after the Trademark […]

Copyright Small Claims Bill Introduced

Copyright owners are one step closer to being able to pursue copyright infringement actions through a copyright small claims system. A new bipartisan House bill has introduced the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act of 2017 (“CASE Act”). The CASE Act, H.R. 3945, was recently introduced by Congressional representatives to create a small claims court […]