Author Archives: mwillee

A bedrock tenant in intellectual property law is being first to the post when it comes to filing for trademarks; otherwise, you and your business or project are simply out of luck, regardless of the primacy of your creation. That said, there is something to having a history and building brand recognition separate and apartContinue reading “MLS Loses Appeal Over “Inter” Name”

In writing about legal cases, whether they be in the sphere of intellectual property or falling anywhere else outside of it, it’s quite easy to spend your attention on the initial battle, ignoring the ongoing fight or the eventual resolution. Largely that’s a function of the legal system itself and the astonishing amount of timeContinue reading “Minaj, Chapman Settle Copyright Case”

One of the benefits, one might suppose, of being among the most famous people on the planet is that relatively few people are unaware of important facts about you. It’s fair to say that LeBron James ranks among those people, as his mega-stardom has made him known and recognizable the world over, even in placesContinue reading “LeBron James Adds Trademark Blocking to Repertoire”

Few things sever any lingering connections to your childhood like the disillusionment with those things you once held in great esteem at that age. It’s perhaps the root of much cynicism that people and organizations that ostensibly exist to support and nurture young people are eventually discovered to be flawed in ways great and small,Continue reading “Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts Locked In Trademark Conflict”

Wait long enough and you’ll live to see your favorite films come around again in a new, rebooted form, to the lamentations of those old enough to either remember the original or even care about such things. It’s trite to say that Hollywood currently is nothing but sequels, reboots and overextended franchises (and prospective overextendedContinue reading “‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ Reboot Runs Into Copyright Suit”

Much of the narrative about IP lawsuits carters around the separate and seemingly unequal systems of justice that exist depending on net worth. Bigger businesses with more resources can afford better lawyers for longer, and in many cases indefinitely, as in-house legal teams are a thing for those select corporations. Small businesses can struggle toContinue reading “Intel Staring Down $2.28 Billion Patent Infrigement Judgment”

Multiple things can be true at once; we can agree on the notion that patent trolls are bad, and that they and others who abuse the currently broken system of adjudicating IP law are doing considerable harm, and also concede that, in the case of some of the companies targeted by these entities, the eventualContinue reading “Apple Loses $308 Million Patent Infringement Case”

Cast your mind, if you will, back to 2010; do you recall what you were doing? Who you were, and how different your life was then to how it is now? A decade is a long time in the course of human life, and it’s a long time for a court case to wend itsContinue reading “Supreme Court Sides With Google In API Copyright Case”

I’m typically loath to revisit stories too many times, but occasionally you have to see something out to its end, particularly if its end is particularly ignominious. 

If you’re not up on shoe culture, stories about old and new kicks going for occasionally eye-watering prices can boggle the mind. Regardless of how you feel about it, though, there is a lot of money in the buying and selling of collectible shoes, and notably, a lot of that money is made on secondaryContinue reading “Lil Nas X’s Controversial Shoes Draw Trademark Suit From Nike”