It is a ruling that initially sounds like a joke: a New York Civil Division Supreme Court Justice has ruled that golfing legend Jack Nicklaus is now free to use his name and likeness in business once again. Why was his ability to use them ever in question? And how did...
If you want to stop people who might utilize the marks associated with a brand you own, the first thing you need to do is register those marks with the USPTO. However, your work does not stop at registering your marks – the real deterrent comes when entities police...
Tangle, Inc. is the owner of copyright registrations for seven different sculptures that are both kinetic and manipulable. Each sculpture is made out of 17-to-18 tubular segments that are curved 90 degrees and completely identical. Once connected, each segment can be...
What if I were to tell you a television show about a basketball team that uses a real basketball team’s registered trademark name and colors, is set in the same city, and even has the fictional team being founded in the same year? If you said that sounds a lot like...
In 2018, Stephen Thaler attempted to get copyright protection for a piece of visual art called “A Recent Entrance to Paradise.” The work was created by DABUS, an AI system made by Thaler. Interestingly, Thaler did not apply for a copyright for himself. Rather, he...
Can the filing of a false Section 15 Declaration provide valid grounds for cancellation of a trademark registration? In the case of Great Concepts, LLC v. Chutter, Inc., the Federal Circuit Court answered no. They did so again in a modified opinion after a petition...
Way back in 2003, animator Buck Woodall claims he provided both the screenplay and a trailer for the animated film Bucky to a production company that had a first-look deal with Disney. At the time, that production company had offices on Disney facilities in Burbank,...
If you have ever driven down I-95 toward Daytona Beach or St. Augustine (or in much of the southeast or practically anywhere in Texas), chances are good that you have seen signs advertising Buc-ee’s gas station/country store. If you have seen those signs or visited a...