I ♡ Trademarks NewsletterIssue #343
Bri Van Til | June 27, 2023
Nope
The Ninth Circuit said nope to a $1.7 million attorney fee award in a class action copyright infringement case where the class was awarded around $50,000.
The Supreme Court has declined to hear ML Genius Holdings v. Google, leaving intact the ruling that Google should be allowed display Genuis’s aggregated song lyrics directly in search results on its page.
A federal judge has granted a request from Hermés to permanently bar the sale of MetaBirkins.
Pride Month
Since Tam v. Matal, there has been a marked increase in the number of LGBTQIA+ trademarks. Surprisingly, the majority of marks and applications have been affirming, with “not a single disparaging use of… slurs.”
Don’t miss out on getting your Pride-related trademark gear from the Trademarket! All net proceeds go to The Playing Field Project to help diversify the legal profession.
Less than 4% of attorneys identify as LGBTQIA+, signaling the importance of visibility and representation.
SCOTUS of Control
Senators are considering a bill that would nullify all SCOTUS-created exemptions to patent eligibility.
SCOTUS will not hear appeals in Nike v. Adidas or Apple and Broadcom v. Caltech patent cases.
Amid all the controversy around gifts for the Justices, how should judges navigate gift offerings?
A suit against Disney is poised to test the precedent set by Jack Daniel’s v. VIP as the company seeks to defend its use of Lotso—one of the greatest movie villains ever—against toy company Diece-Lisa Industries, which claims the bear infringes their trademarks.
Professional Concerns
Whether or not you’re in the Abbott of applying for positions like this one, you should consider it.
This firm has the Best name, so go be a trademark paralegal supervisor for them.
Don’t fall in love with your current job: apply to the Copa. CopaCarvana. Also, just so you know, the lyrics to that Barry Manilow song are way darker than I thought given its catchy tune. Also also, I totally got those lyrics in my Google search window.
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
Artist Maurizio Cattelan, who duct taped a banana to the gallery wall (and who made headlines after a performance artist ate said banana) was sued for copyright infringement by another artist who duct taped fruit to a wall. I guess they wanted to see their ideas come to fruition.
Should rhythms be protectable by copyright?
This article about trademarks for the shapes of hotels has an amazing title. I hope we guitar titles as right as they did!
Are “Learnright” laws the answer to the question of how to balance AI learning and copyright protection?
There will be no newsletter next week because of the holiday. Have a wonderful 4th, and stay safe, friends!