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Alt Legal Blog

Your source for news, updates and guidance on all things trademarks and intellectual property.

Alt Legal IP News – Issue # 185

Bri Van Til | April 22, 2020
2 min read

This Virtual Reality

– Attorney Jane Tucker warns that many virtual worship services are violating copyright law by livestreaming or recording music for which they don’t have sufficient licenses.

– After realizing that nobody (including, apparently, its own team) actually calls its videoconferencing service Google Hangouts Meet, Google has applied for trademark protection for GOOGLE CHAT and GOOGLE MEET.

– If you’ve been Zoombombed or if you’re just concerned about the security of your videoconference, here are some suggestions for securing your conferences.

– Fraudsters are using phishing and social engineering to gain access to valuable personal information and spread malware.

– This family court judge wants to remind attorneys that virtual court is still court and that they shouldn’t don’t show up shirtless or ill groomed.

– Our virtual happy hour, however, is not court. So feel free to show up ill-groomed if you’d like, but join us every Thursday at 5 EST. Also join us next Wednesday for our webinar, “Creative Strategies for IP Protection in the Food Industry,” with Jelly Belly General Counsel Mark Leonard. Read about other virtual events here.

The Cure and the Disease

– Apple and Google are collaborating to create a coronavirus tracking application that can alert people when someone they’ve been in close contact with contracts coronavirus.

– 3M is using trademark law to sue rival firms for allegedly selling N95 respirator masks at inflated prices.

– A novel cannabinoid is being licensed for research as a possible treatment for novel coronavirus.

– Hospital technicians are reportedly disregarding intellectual property protections to do whatever needs to be done for their safety and that of patients.

Don’t Take My Picture

– Amy Schumer is the most recent celebrity to be sued for copyright infringement for posting on social media a photo of herself.

– A muralist sued a film production company as well as Netflix, Amazon, Apple, and Google because her mural was featured in Bushwick without her permission. The case was dismissed.

– A New York District judge has ruled that a photographer offered a “valid sublicense” to her photo by publishing it on Instagram.

– Photographer Mark Seliger is suing NBCUniversal for copyright infringement of dozens of his photos.

– The Copyright Office caught some flack for tweeting that “All 10k of the photos you took of your cat while asleep are protected by copyright from the moment they are created.”

Professional Concerns

– Facebook would like IP counsel, or you can go with Pokémon, which is looking for senior commercial counsel.

– Bumble wants legal counsel, and The Noble Network of Charter Schools is looking for associate general counsel.

– Nestlé Purina has an opening for senior litigation and compliance counsel.

– Beyer Law Group is looking for a patent agent or attorney.

– Have an open role on your team? Send a link to your job listing to community@altlegal.com, and we’ll publish it in our next newsletter.

Odds and Ends

– The COVID-19 pandemic is not even close to over, but the lawsuits have begun.

– Google had been negotiating with French news outlets to pay for displaying their content, but antitrust regulators have ordered it to do so.

– Here are some tips for advanced TESS searches.

– The First Amendment was used to defeat three different IP infringement claims in the same day. The best of them involves a Jack Daniel’s inspired dog toy.

– What are the bounds of video game copyrights?

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