Here are several stories and updates, as well as a new IP blog:
At Patently-O, Dennis Crouch covers the Federal Circuit decision in the appeal from the Northern District of Illinois case SourceOne Global Partners, LLC v. KGK Synergize, Inc. — Click here for Crouch’s post on the appeal and here for my post on the underlying decision.
The latest installment of Doug Lichtman’s IP Colloquium is available — click here to listen. Lichtman and his guests from Microsoft, Paramount Pictures and MySpace discuss the protection of content in the digital age. As always, it is an excellent listen and CLE credit is available.
Seattle Trademark Lawyer Michael Atkins has another great post up about Olympic trademarks, this time featuring an article that ran in the Chicago Tribune (here) and LA Times (here) quoting both Atkins and me.
California attorney and mediator Erica Bristol has started the IP Watchtower blog. The blog covers all facets of intellectual property and the initial posts suggest it will be a great read. I have added it to my feed reader.
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Michael Atkins
IP News Shorts
Here are a few stories from the blogosphere that I did not have time to fully cover this week because of pressing client matters and some new opportunities:
* The Federalist Society is offering an excellent podcast discussing Bilski from almost every possible angle. The podcast features West Virginia University Law Professor Michael Risch and American University Law Professor Joshua Sarnoff, who filed competing amicus briefs. The podcast is a half-hour well spent for anyone involved in patent law. Click here to listen to the podcast. Hat tip to Duncan Bucknell at the IP Think Tank Blog for pointing out the podcast.
* Doug Lichtman’s IP Colloquium takes a thorough look at the copyright issue of the year thus far, Shepard Fairey’s iconic Obama image, and Lichtman offers free CLE credit for listening. Click here for that edition and here for the IP Colloquium’s archives.
* Michael Atkins has identified the top five trademark cases of the last year at the Seattle Trademark Lawyer. Number 4 is the Seventh Circuit’s decision in AutoZone v. Strick. Click here for more on the district court decisions in the case from the Blog’s archives. This is what Atkins had to say about the Seventh Circuit’s decision:
[G]ood likelihood of confusion analysis in reversal of hard-fought trademark infringement case, which also was one of the first dilution cases under the [Trademark Dilution Revision Act].
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Blawg Review #225: A Trademark Focus from Pike Place Market
Seattle Trademark Lawyer Michael Atkins did a superb job hosting this week’s Blawg Review — click here to read it. Atkins takes a stroll through Seattle’s famous Pike’s Place Market looking at Seattle-based blogs — Washington State Patent Law Blog, LexBlog and the China Law Blog, among others — as well as a number of trademark blogs. I was fortunate to be featured on Atkins’s tour with last week’s post about the Lettuce trademark dispute — click here to read my post. Thanks Mike, for a great Blawg Review and for including the Blog.
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IP News Shorts
Here are several stories and updates worth a read:
I am hosting the August Carnival of Trust on Monday, August 3 here. I hosted once before and really enjoyed the experience — click here and here. The Carnival of Trust is a monthly, traveling review of ten of the last month’s best posts related to various aspects of trust in the business world. If you have trust-related posts from the last month, send them to me. by Friday or Saturday. For other examples of Carnival of Trust posts, check out recent hosts Adrian Dayton and Victoria Pynchon.
I was featured in Stephanie Allen West’s Reading Minds column in the ABA’s Law Practice Management magazine this month — click here to read the column. Along with Jennifer Loud Ungar, Andrew Flusche, and Todd Kashdan, I was asked to recommend a favorite management book. I went with an unorthodox choice, but a valuable read, the Boy Scout Patrol Leader’s Handbook. Here is some of my recommendation:
In the many years since I relied on the Handbook to run Boy Scout patrols, I have found the lessons in this volume to be equally applicable to leading and managing teams of lawyers or businesspeople. The Handbook is a powerful guide for developing successful organizations, maintaining group morale and achieving group success. As an example, it lists these 10 tips for being a good leader: (1) keep your word; (2) be fair; (3) communicate well and often; (4) be flexible; (5) be organized; (6) delegate; (7) set an example; (8) be consistent; (9) give praise; and (10) ask for help. These are words to live by for patrol leaders, lawyers and C-level executives alike.
Michael Atkins has a great post at his Seattle Trademark Lawyer about a strong brand protection program worth emulating — click here to read it.
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Blawg Review #162
Blawg Review #162 is now available at the China Law Blog. This week’s review is a bit light on IP links, except for Mike Atkin’s Seattle Trademark Lawyer post detailing a potential trademark dispute involving coffee and roller derby — click here for the post. Despite that (or maybe because of it), it is a great read. And if you are looking for good information on Chinese business law, the China Law Blog is one of the best.
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IP News Roundup
Several unrelated legal stories that are worth a read:
An excellent Illinois Business Law Journal article regarding whether Google is losing its trademark to genericide. It concludes that Google’s mark is relatively safe, partly because Google’s trademark is identical to its domain name.*
Patent Troll Tracker has been unmasked. The unmasking was based, at least in part, on Ray Niro’s bounty for Troll Tracker’s name. As would be expected, Troll Tracker unmasked himself with class and a sense of humor. He is taking a few weeks off from blogging to decide whether to continue. I hope he decides to continue. Troll Tracker is a powerful voice on some complex issues, and he is right that it is great to see another inhouse legal blogger. Plus, it would be a shame for Troll Tracker to disappear just after Ron Coleman finally discovered him.
Blawg Review #148 is up at Blawg IT. In addition to the usual links to law blog posts, Brett helps us smell the electronic roses with numerous non-legal video clips.
* Hat tip to Michael Atkins at the Seattle Trademark Blog for pointing out the article during his Trademark Dilution Weekend.
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Changed Circumstances Warrant Dismissal With Costs, Not Attorney’s Fees
Milwaukee Elec. Tool Corp. v. Robert Bosch Tool Corp., No. 05 C 1171, 2007 WL 2875232 (N.D. Ill. Sep. 28, 2004) (Kendall, J.)
Judge Kendall granted plaintiff’s motion to dismiss its Lanham Act case with prejudice and awarded defendant its costs but not its fees pursuant to 15 U.S.C. § 1117(a). The Court held that…