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Stating that the antidilution law should be used as “a scalpel, not a battle axe,” Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the Southern District of New York once again found that Starbucks failed to prove that the famous STARBUCKS trademark was likely to be diluted by the use of the marks CHARBUCKS BLEND, MR. CHARBUCKS, and MISTER CHARBUCKS on dark roasted coffee. In her December 23 opinion,… More
Here’s something you probably don’t want fixed in a tangible medium of expression: revenge porn.
Twenty-five-year-old Hunter Moore (pictured, above right) is the creator of the website Is Anyone Up (www.isanyoneup.com). In essence, here’s how revenge porn works: Remember those naked pictures you took of yourself and sent to a very close friend with the explicit instruction or implicit assumption that the images would remain private?… More
After the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing on ICANN’s new gTLD Program on December 8, the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a similar hearing this morning. Returning witnesses were Dan Jaffe, Executive Vice President of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), Fiona Alexander, Associate Administrator of the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA),… More
As we discussed, last week the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a full committee hearing on ICANN’s domain name expansion, perhaps in part to address CRIDO’s recent actions to stall the gTLD program. The following summary of the hearing was prepared for the American Bar Association by James L. Bikoff, David Heasley, and Philip Marano … More
On Monday, December 12 at 12:30 p.m. EST, the Northeast Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel presents The Domain Name Deluge: What In-House Counsel Need to Know About ICANN’s New gTLD Program. J. Scott Evans, Senior Legal Director, Global Brand & Trademarks, YAHOO! Inc. will join me to explore ICANN’s upcoming introduction of new top-level domain names, including a discussion of domain name basics,… More
For those of you following, breath bated, developments regarding ICANN’s New gTLD Program, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is holding a full committee hearing on the domain name expansion on December 8 at 10:00 AM ET in 253 Russell Senate Office Building, and also via webcast. Witnesses have not yet been announced. A similar hearing was conducted earlier this year by the House Committee on the Judiciary,… More
As most readers know, the Supreme Court held in the 2006 eBay decision that injunctions were no longer to be the norm in patent cases, and irreparable harm was not to be presumed. Instead, injunctions are within the equitable discretion of the district court, and are to be granted only if the plaintiff has shown entitlement under the traditional multi-factor test.
It’s been clear for some time that the same principles now apply in copyright and trademark cases as well.… More