Author Archives: mwillee

As a political science student, you learn that much of what law and regulation ends up being in practice comes down to interpretation and implementation and enforcement on the part of the relevant agencies. Laws don’t mean much if they’re not enforced, or if the enforcement ends up being something different entirely from the originalContinue reading “Is the Patent Office Awarding Too Many Patents?”

The story of copyright in the twenty-first century tends to be one of corporate overreach, though you perhaps can’t blame big business for trying; after all, it falls to regulatory and oversight bodies to rein in the worst actions and instances of IP abuse, and those institutions don’t always appear to be up to theContinue reading “Disney’s Tweet Claims Raise Copyright Questions”

Nothing good can be said of the coronavirus, but to the extend that anything like the slightest silver lining on the darkest cloud can be seen, we can take the smallest amount of solace in the fact that banal misdeeds seem so much lesser now than they did a mere few weeks ago, and inContinue reading “Tesla, Zoox Settle Trade Secrets Lawsuit”

Our current moment of crisis requires some combination of ingenuity and communal spirit and flexibility and, well, the results thus far are a mixed bag. There are countless people willing to give of themselves and their time to help both medical workers working long hours with dangerously low supplies and those people thrown out ofContinue reading “3M Sues Counterfeit N95 Mask Seller for  Trademark Infringement”

The lockdown and isolation that we’re all living through has brought certain realities to light; namely, that as much as many people may have lamented that much of life had moved online prior to March 2020, it was nothing compared to what we’re experiencing right now. The last bastions of in-person activites have shuttered orContinue reading “Online Education Exposes the Flaws of Copyright Law”

Now more than ever we are made aware of our reliance upon Amazon in providing us with what we want and need, and for the duration of our current crisis questions about wages and hours for warehouse workers or the sheer dominance of the online retailer and whether that’s good for anybody but Amazon becomeContinue reading “Amazon Wins Trademark Duspute Over Third Party Infringement”

There are no shortage of new problems technology has introduced into the world, but notionally there are some things that should be exempted from that principle, and for many young people, video games is front of mind as an example. The internet and smartphones may provide new ways to spy on us or hack ourContinue reading “NBA2K Makers Win Summary Judgment in Copyright Case”

It’s become commonplace for big companies to target smaller businesses with trademark or copyright complaints over what could be termed marginal cases, if we’re being generous. It’s easy enough for the big companies to do — most have the budget for considerable in-house or outside counsel to pursue such cases, and there’s no penalty forContinue reading “Comedian Changes Name to Protest Trademark Misuse”

Music copyright has proven to be a tricky topic in recent years, given how readily available music is at present paired with the ability to take on alleged infringement, both through YouTube and in the courts. (Not that any court case would ever be considered easy.) The exponential growth in copyright cases within music isContinue reading “Musician Tries To Fix Copyright By Copyrighting All The Melodies”

The idea that much of what is considered innovative or revolutionary may actually simply built upon a foundation of borrowed or stolen ideas is not a new one, but it’s one that gets trotted out a lot in this century. The usual sequence of events dictates that a company gets big off a great newContinue reading “Quibi Accused of Patent Infringement Ahead of Launch”