New Jersey has now joined the growing number of states that have enacted comprehensive online privacy protections for certain consumers and that have imposed requirements on companies collecting and processing consumer data...more
Are you facing the frustration (and cost) of playing whack-a-mole with counterfeit and infringing products on Amazon and other online marketplaces? If so, the newly enacted INFORM Consumers Act could be a major new tool in...more
7/6/2023
/ Amazon ,
Bad Actors ,
Consumers ,
Counterfeiting ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
E-Commerce ,
Infringement ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Online Marketplace ,
Sellers ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
Trademark owners may howl at the artistic and humorous use of their marks by someone else, but that use might be protected as fair use. Trademark owners’ ears perked up at an appeals court holding last year that parody is a...more
Was it fair for Google to copy 11,500 lines of Oracle’s copyrighted Java Application Programming Interface (API) simply to make it easier for programmers already familiar with Java to develop apps for Google’s Android...more
4/6/2021
/ APIs ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Fair Use ,
Google ,
Java ,
Oracle ,
Oracle v Google ,
SCOTUS ,
Smartphones ,
Software ,
Technology Sector ,
Transformative Use
If you are considering filing a new trademark application or maintaining an existing registration, you may want to file your submission before the end of 2020. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will...more
We wrote recently about proposed changes to laws governing content on the internet. Washington has now proposed even more changes that could affect policing of the internet and social media.
In brief, Section 230(c) of the...more
Do you produce and share content through social media or a blog? You may be surprised to know that, until now, little copyright protection was available under U.S. law for digital works. Especially considering the ability to...more
I don’t have any reasons
I left them all behind
I’m in a trademark state of mind.
A “New York State of Mind” may matter to Billy Joel, but state of mind does not matter when it comes to eligibility for certain remedies...more
As lawyers for start-up and emerging-growth companies, we see a range of disputes between founders and costly missteps that could have been avoided with proper planning and good advice. The ownership of intellectual property...more
In keeping with the hurried passage of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) at inception, the California legislature passed a flurry of amendments to the embattled privacy law just hours before the deadline of the...more
11/15/2019
/ California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Opt-Outs ,
Personal Information ,
Privacy Laws ,
Private Right of Action ,
Right to Delete
Do you have a website that allows users to comment, review, or post anything? If so, you could be liable for their posts that infringe the copyright of another person. Safe harbor immunities can protect you from this...more
While many states have legalized or decriminalized cannabis products, the federal government still considers these products to be illegal. Thus, as people are often surprised to learn, federal trademark protection for these...more
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has announced that all foreign trademark applicants and registrants and all parties to Trademark Trial and Appeal Board proceedings must be represented by a U.S.-licensed...more
George Carlin famously observed that there are seven words you can’t say on TV. Erik Brunetti didn’t get the message and thus sought to register a trademark for a line of clothing called “FUCT.” The U.S. Patent and Trademark...more
6/28/2019
/ Appeals ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Iancu v. Brunetti ,
Lanham Act ,
Reaffirmation ,
Reversal ,
Scandalous/Immoral Marks ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO ,
Viewpoint Discrimination
Your business may be compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), but that does not guarantee compliance with the next wave of data privacy: the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) going into effect on...more
2/28/2019
/ California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Opt-Outs ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Privacy Laws ,
Private Right of Action ,
Right to Delete
The United Kingdom is likely to exit the European Union on either March 29, 2019, or on December 31, 2020, depending on whether there is “a deal” (there’s always a chance the parties extend the negotiations or the UK revokes...more
2/11/2019
/ Copyright ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Cross-Border ,
Data Privacy ,
EU ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Patents ,
Popular ,
Trade Secrets ,
Trademark Application ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
UK ,
UK Brexit ,
UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO)
Remember Columbia House Records? You signed up, got a dozen albums for a penny, and then maybe tried to cancel your subscription before paying the higher monthly price. This was a very successful business model for attracting...more
The other GDPR shoe has dropped… with the European data protection law being enforced against a Canadian company.
Since the sweeping law went into effect on May 25, 2018, the digital world has been waiting for enforcement...more
If your website allows for posting of user-generated content and you filed an agent designation insulating you from copyright infringement claims, you may be about to lose that legal protection. All existing paper-filed agent...more
12/6/2016
/ Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Office ,
Designated Agent ,
DMCA ,
Popular ,
Renewal Options ,
Safe Harbors ,
Takedown Notices ,
User-Generated Content ,
Website Owner Liability ,
Websites
Have any data on people in the UK or France? New EU data privacy rules will be setting de facto global standards that will apply to US companies, like it or not.
Europe’s lawmakers have given a preview of the new...more
A federal appeals court recently ruled that “features and functions” of software programs are not trade secrets, particularly when those with access are not required to sign confidentiality agreements. Because trade secret...more
Suppose you walk into a greasy cheeseburger joint and ask for a Coke®. A cook who looks remarkably like the late John Belushi doesn’t say, “No Coke; Pepsi.” Instead, he says, “You want Coke? Have a Pepsi!” and you buy the...more
A good marketing department knows how to generate product “buzz” by leveraging external influencers and promotions. The challenge for the company is to avoid being stung by the FTC’s recently published Endorsement Guides (the...more
7/16/2015
/ Celebrity Endorsements ,
Conflicts of Interest ,
Contests & Promotions ,
Disclosure ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Endorsement Guidelines ,
Likes ,
Marketing ,
Online Endorsements ,
Social Media ,
Social Networks ,
Terms and Conditions ,
Truth in Advertising ,
Twitter
Most Kickstarter projects never reach the funding threshold, so funders never pay anything into the venture. However, as shown by recent enforcement action, agencies such as the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) have become...more
You may think there is no value in chasing domain name squatters because customers find your website through search engines, but consider squatters as internal and external security risks. A constantly evolving threat, there...more
6/24/2015
/ Cybersecurity ,
Cybersquatting ,
Domain Names ,
Email ,
Hackers ,
Phishing Scams ,
Scams ,
Trademarks ,
UDRP ,
Uniform Rapid Suspension ,
Websites