Jay Hollander's Weblog - Intellectual Property

Welcome to the weblog for Intellectual Property Law.

Wed Nov 16, 2005

U.S. stares Down Internet Negotiators -- and Wins!

This Blog has previously reported on the increasingly vocal demands from other nations to have the U.S. relinquish control of the Internet addressing system, originally created in the U.S.

Much speculation followed, ahead of the upcoming U.N. World Summit on the Information Society, as to whether the U.S. would accede to the request as one way of trying to improve what some claim is a tarnished international image.

Apparently not. Read about the "deal", which leaves the U. S. firmly in charge.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/11/16/D8DTJ5UG1.html

Posted by: Jay Hollander
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Sun Nov 13, 2005

Bush Backing Tougher Copyright Laws

CNET reports that U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez outlined the Bush Administration's latest proposals to strengthen the Nation's copyright laws at an anti-piracy summit hosted by the Department of Commerce.

Among the proposals is one to create the crime of "attempting to infringe copyright", which would subject inept infringers to the same penalties as those of their more successful counterparts.

But that's not all. In a nod to Farenheit 451 ( not to be confused with Michael Moore's you know what), the proposals allow the Government to both seize and destroy counterfeit goods as well as the equipment used to make them.

And, best of all, the proposals allow the criminal penalties attending violation of the laws regarding registered copyrights to extend to unregistered works as well, on the theory that searching for registrations retards the enforcementr process.

On the other hand, those suing for Civil remedies will have to continue to do their own homework.

The proposals can be downloaded by clicking this link: http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.publicknowledge.org%2Fpdf%2F20051110-doj-ip-prot-act.pdf&siteId=3&oId=2100-1028-5944612&ontId=1023&lop=nl.ex

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More Useless Litigation by Overanxious Trademark Holders

With the help of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-commercial medical news website, dedicated to objectively reporting the pros and cons of an experintal drug for treatment of obesity and smoking, was able to settle charges brought by the drug's trademark holder that the use of the drug name, Acomplia, in the Acompliareport.com web site infringed its mark.

Even though the website was not commercial in nature and carried a conspicuous notation at the top of the home page that the website was an "independent source of news" about the drug, the mark holder maintined that there was a likeliood of confusion regarding the use of the mark.

When the EFF brought suit, a settlement was reached by allowing the website to keep its domain name in exchange for an "additional" disclaimer that the report is not affiliated or endorsed by the mark holder.

Makes one wonder what the meaning of the word "independent" on a non-commercial site means anymore?

http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_11.php#004143

The formerly offending website can be found at http://www.acompliareport.com/

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Mon Nov 07, 2005

Grokster Gives Up

Like Napster before it, Grokster succumbed to adverse court determinations.

Also like Napster, Grokster promises a legal version of its much publicized file sharing service to come.

If you can't beat 'em......

http://www.grokster.com/

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Mon Oct 24, 2005

RIM on the Precipice

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has denied RIM's motion for a stay pending its appeal of the appellate court's infringement findings to the US Supreme Court, prompting the beleagured company to seek the stay directly from the Supreme Court itself.

Should the stay not be granted, the case will be remanded to the lower court, which will have its hands full. While seemingly ready for the penalty phase of the case, the lower court will be asked to reevaluate its ruling based upon flaws found by the appellate court, despite its overall findings against RIM.

The lower court will also be asked to consider whether a tentative settlement, allegedly reached between the parties previously, should be enforced, with RIM arguing that the deal was done and should be followed, so as to allow it to stay in business in the US, while the patent holder, NTP, argues that final details were never agreed to between the parties.

Still, according to reports, NTP is prepared to make a license offer to RIM in order to forestall the need for further litigation.

http://tinyurl.com/ba7ra

See RIM's press release here http://rim.com/news/press/2005/pr-21_10_2005-01.shtml

The offer http://www.managingip.com/default.asp?page=9&PubID=198&SID=593355&ISS=20643&LS=EMS54706

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Sun Oct 16, 2005

On the Hunt for Web Copyright Infringement

The Wall Street Journal reports that stock photography licensing companies like GettyImages.com and Corbis have been using new "digital fingerprint" technologies to trace unauthorized use of their licensed images on the web. Even less customized search efforts, such as those using Google to search for images, are increasingly being used to combat what these companies consider an increasing perception of bloggers and others that they can use copyrighted stock photography images found on the web for all purposes without permission.

http://tinyurl.com/87jfd

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International SPAM

CNET reports that, according to a recent studyconducted by SOPHOS, a computer security firm, a combination of enforcement of the CAN-SPAM Act and technological security measures has reduced SPAM coming from domestic sources, allowing the percentage of overseas SPAM to rise dramatically.

And, no, we're not just talking about offers from exiled African government officials, asking you to help park millions of dollars in your bank account.

According to the report, the percentage of SPAM coming from South Korea and China has increased to 20% and 16%, respectively, while that coming from US sources has declined from 41% to 26%.

http://tinyurl.com/cnwk7

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Mon Oct 10, 2005

Can You Email Me Now?

RIM, the maker of the ubiquitous Blackberry line of communicators failed in its efforts to have a lower court ruling against it reviewed by the entire 12 judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals' federal circuit, an effort to revisit its unsuccessful trip before a 3 judge panel of the same Court.

This past Friday, RIM announced that it would seek U.S. Supreme Court review and an interim stay, in an effort to forestall injunctive relief, held in abeyance by the lower court pending appeal, which would have prohibited the messaging giant from selling its devices and software in the U.S.

A plain English summary of the current happenings can be found at
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,122941,00.asp

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Sun Oct 09, 2005

What's More Obscene?

Florida authorities have arrested a Lakeland, Florida man on obscenity charges stemming from a website with a curious mixture of images, unusual sex acts and casualties from the War in Iraq.

According to an article in the Detroit Free Press:

"The charges against Christopher M. Wilson, a former police officer, are likely to reignite the debate about obscene material in the Internet age. They also raise questions about whether the federal government played a part in motivating the prosecution. "

Interestingly, the obscenity charges, 300 in all, don't directly deal with the casualty images, sometimes depicting mutilated corpses, but, instead, with the sex act images that happen to be on the same website.

Of course, porn sites are nothing new and Wilson's site is a curious one to make an example of, particularly since obscenity charges are matters of local standards, difficult to prove regarding globally available Internet content.

As the article makes clear, the defense will likely suggest that the impetus for the prosecution (as opposed to images of prostitution) came from military and/or federal government pressure.

Read more at http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm6544_20051008.htm

Posted by: Jay Hollander
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Copyright? Well, We are Copying, Right?

The Author's Guild and certain individual author plaintiffs have brought suit against Google, challenging the search engine giant's new program of digitizing libraries of printed matierial, including those still protected by copyright. http://www.multireg.com/article577.html

The program being attacked is Google Print, still in Beta. Google describes the project like this:

"What is Google Print?
Google's mission is to organize the world's information, but much of that information isn't yet online. Google Print aims to get it there by putting book content where you can find it most easily – right in your Google search results.

How does Google Print work?
Just do a search on the Google Print homepage. When we find a book whose content contains a match for your search terms, we'll link to it in your search results. Click a book title and you'll see the page of the book that has your search terms, along with other information about the book and "Buy this Book" links to online bookstores (you can view the entirety of public domain books or, for books under copyright, just a few pages or in some cases, only the title’s bibliographic data and brief snippets). You can also search for more information within that specific book and find nearby libraries that have it.

Where do these books come from?
The book content in Google Print comes from two sources: publishers and libraries."
Read more »

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