Alt Legal IP News – Issue #137
Justin Wickersham | April 30, 2019
Mad Scientists
– A “science-focused” company wants to protect their invention, which to most people seems a lot like a spliff.
– MD Anderson Cancer Center has dismissed three scientists due to espionage concerns.
– The Justice Department is reviewing the government’s lack of patent enforcement against Gilead, the maker of an HIV treatment drug.
Snack Time
– The owner of an Icelandic chain of supermarkets no longer holds the EU trademark registration for “Iceland.”
– Christina Tosi, founder of Milk Bar in NYC, is suing JoJo’s Milk Bar in Chicago for trademark infringement.
– PepsiCo sued 4 Indian farmers for cultivating patented potatoes. The company immediately also offered to settle with the farmers.
Social Media
– Twitter removed one of the president’s tweets due to copyright infringement.
– Even though copyright law has failed some creatives, social media has led to increased accountability and transparency.
– Ready for phones with wraparound displays?
Odds and Ends
– Off-White is claiming to have common law trademark rights for the use of quotation marks.
– Check out this deep dive on color as a trademark.
– Last week I included a story about counterfeit Legos. The counterfeit company was using blueprints and had over 600,000 finished sets seized.
– Universal Music was denied a trademark registration for “As Heard on TV.”
– Amazon is trying a new tactic to combat counterfeiting and infringement: they are bringing on lawyers for sellers.