Alt Legal IP News – Issue #253
Bri Van Til | August 19, 2021
Get It Write
Erotica author Romilly King has been accused of plagiarizing one of her novels from somebody’s Supernatural fan fiction.
The estate of Jacques Levy, the co-writer of many of Bob Dylan’s songs, sued for a portion of the sale of Dylan’s catalog. The case was dismissed. Dylan was like, “Who’s paying that? It ain’t me, babe.”
Snopes co-founder and CEO David Mikkelson has admitted to plagiarizing dozens of articles he wrote for the fact-checking site. Read the management’s apology here.
Read all about New York Times v. Tasini, the first major case (from 2001) about online publication, in which it was found that publishers licensing articles to databases infringed the authors’ copyrights.
What Should I Do?
If you don’t have your ticket for Alt Legal Connect next month, sign up now (and use the code “newsletter” for a discount). Our amazing trademark conference will leave you knowledgeable about the latest trademark issues, ready to make your firm succeed, full of CLE credit, and connected to the trademark community. Also, it’ll be tons of fun!
In case you’re looking for more ethics credits after this session at Alt Legal Connect, sign up for this ethics conference.UIC is hosting a webinar about international IP.
Canadian trademark issues leave you scratching your head and saying “Eh?” Join us for this webinar where Fasken attorney Nathan Haldane will walk you through the major distinctions between USPTO and CIPO trademark prosecution.
It’s How You Use It
Russian courts have ruled that a trademark that isn’t being used doesn’t get protection.
The Ninth Circuit found that Upwork’s listings for freelancers were fair use and didn’t infringe the FREELANCER trademark.
Can you use DMCA takedown requests to get revenge porn removed from sites?
Has the Andy Warhol case made it harder to defend against claims of copyright infringement?
A Canadian Supreme Court ruling has found that colleges and universities will no longer need to pay royalties for photocopies.
Professional Concerns
Motorola over-a to this site-a to apply to be commercial counsel.Don’t just Citi there; apply to be trademark counsel for this bank!
Working as counsel for this accounting and tech firm might give you something to Crowe about.
Have a budding career that you’d like to make Bloom(berg)? Apply to be content licensing counsel at this media company.
Airbn be lead trademark counsel for this tech company.
This opening as counsel for American Chemical Society might be the solution to your problems. If not, I’m eager to hear your reaction to the posting.
Finding yourself on edge at your current job? Consider applying to be counsel at Razer.
Techtronic is looking for an IP docketing specialist to pump up the jam on their portfolio. Oh wait. It’s Technotronic that wants to pump up the jam. Oh well.
Can you tell me how to get to be associate counsel for Sesame Workshop?
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
Everybody wants to be a lawyer now, apparently.
The Commerce Department has issued a report critical of the USPTO. Others have seconded the reports findings and added claims that the USPTO’s recent efforts appear Sinophobic.
How can the ITC help combat trademark infringement?
Oatly hasn’t been granted a federal trademark registration for BARISTA yet, but they’re still opposing others’ use of the term.
Microsoft wants to put the block in blockchain: they want to use it to catch pirates. Rather, they want to block piracy. Aaaarrrrgh!
A fan of trading card game Magic the Gathering has applied for copyright protection for the deck he put together.