If ever there was a boomer story, this is it.

Continue reading “Bill Murray and the Doobie Brothers Trade Jokes Over Licensing Dispute”

Despite what we teach our children, and what we would like to believe ourselves, it seems that bullying really does work to the benefit of the bully and to the detriment of those targeted. It’s unpleasant to think about, surely, but how else are we to describe a state of affairs in which might alone makes right? Other conceptions of morals or ethics seem outdated when faced with this raw exercise of power unchecked by anything but their own limited constraints.

Continue reading “Artist Faces Opposition From Hugo Boss Over Trademark”

In reading about the many specious patent lawsuits pursued every year, it’s some small comfort to know that there are judges still serving as gatekeepers to prevent many of these cases from going any further than they already have. Perhaps not enough, given that certain jurisdictions carry a reputation for being favorable to those types of lawsuits, but at least observers can feel that they system is ultimately working as it should, shaky as that belief may be.

Continue reading “Patent Judge In West Texas Opens Court To Patent Trolls”

You’ve probably heard of the “Streisand effect” or at at least familiar with the general principle of the thing: the idea that, by trying to shut something down to avoid bringing attention to it, you are in fact bringing the very attention that you hoped to avoid. There’s sense to the idea, not that most of us will ever find ourselves the subject of much attention or scrutiny. And yet, many that should know better fail to learn the important lesson that it’s often better to simply let things go rather than given them oxygen.

Continue reading “Facebook Using Trademark To Shut Down Critics”

Most images on the internet get passed around about a half-dozen times before they end up on our screens, so when we hear that copyright can be a challenging issue in the age of social media, it’s fair to say that the case is being understated. How exactly to fix it is a big question for far smarter people, but there does remain the issue of how it’s addressed in the here and now, which is to say somewhat haphazardly.

Continue reading “Photographer’s Copyright Case Against Tennis Website Misses The Mark”

Trademark opposition seems to be the new “it” thing for major companies; more accurately, opposition that would be termed to be in bad faith is the new hot trend in the IP space. You need not look very far back in the archives of this blog to see a spate of similar stories, and while that may seem like repetition or redundancy more than anything else, it’s worth pointing these instances out where possible in the hopes that public opinion, if nothing else, might put a halt to these sorts of cases…eventually.

Continue reading “Rockstar Games Throws Trademark Opposition at Ax Throwing Business”

The advent of modern fandom has perhaps blurred the lines of IP ownership, at least in the minds of fans. I don’t mean to suggest that die-hards are under any apprehension that they hold the legal rights to any aspect of the properties they love so dearly; rather, it’s a type of spiritual ownership that can create both a heretofore unknown passion in a pop culture artifact and, more harmfully, a sense of entitlement. For some, nothing done in the name of fandom can be wrong, even though the transactional nature of the relationship hasn’t changed after all these decades.

Continue reading “Nintendo Shuts Down Fan-Made Zelda Game on Copyright Grounds”

What makes laws work, or at least what should, is that they are or are at least meant to be prescriptive. Violators should know what they did, and what the punishment for the violation should be, in order that they not offend again. Short of that, the system falls apart; people continue to violate the rules unknowingly because there’s no way of knowing what actions might cause them to break those rues. Broadly speaking, that is why rules and laws exist, rather than relying upon the capriciousness of a individual or body to determine what is or isn’t a foul.

Continue reading “Twitch Offer No Explanation To Users For DMCA Takedowns”

It’s become fairly evident over the past several years that, given enough time, every show you ever loved will return in some fashion, whether that be as a sequel featuring a far-older cast than you remember, or as a rebooted property for a new generation to enjoy, or at least watch. Perhaps it’s a mix of the two: the old stars of a teen series now serving as the parents and teachers to a new collection of fresh-faced avatars. The reason for this proliferation is of course money and IP: studios own the IP around those old shows, and more important to this conversation, they trust that old IP more than they do new ideas, for better or worse. And so we’ll get new versions of every show until the reach the end of the catalogue and the cycle begins anew.

Continue reading “TV Reboot Draws Copyright Claim From Original Writer”

There is broad philosophical debate, dating back to the dawn of the advent of tools and other implements manipulated by humans, as to freedom and agency as it regards their use. Plenty of tools are designed to be used for the betterment of the species, and are far more frequently used as such, but can be corrupted for darker purposes. One smarter than myself might argue that such a dichotomy reflects the duality of human nature, but that’s likely a bit grandiose for a column on intellectual property. Suffice it to say, every tool is a weapon of sorts in the wrong hands. But does that offer justification to take those tools out of the hands of users?

Continue reading “RIAA Makes DMCA Claims Against Github Over Video Download Software”