NoYouCantWriteABriefLikeThisToGetAroundTheWordLimit
Appalling.
Intellectual Property
“Haulin’ Oats”? No Can Do
Or so say Hall & Oates, and the court will probably agree.
How Did That Taster’s Choice Case Turn Out?
I mentioned Christoff v. Nestlé the other day—you know, the case where the guy was surprised to see his face on the Taster's Choice coffee label and ended up getting $15 million for it—and someone wrote me to ask how…
U.S. Pat. No. 8605152: Method for Filming a Yoga Class
"The yoga community went into uproar," says the Electronic Frontier Foundation, after companies that offer online fitness classes got letters from a competitor, YogaGlo, saying that it had applied for a patent on the "method and technique" involved. The method and…
Guy Sues Legal System Again
Just the one in Illinois, at least for now. According to the Madison Record (thanks, Dave), Aaron Wemple has sued the Illinois State Bar Association and all of its members, alleging that … well, that it and they have done and/or are doing…
U.S. Pat. No. 8,782,827: Infant Soothing Device
Via Improbable Research, here's the latest of what turns out to be a fairly large number of infant-soothing-device patents, or as the abstract describes it: A device to assuage distressed infants via an adjustable vertical motion combined with an adjustable orientation….
Copyright Office Weighs in on Monkey Pictures
In the draft of its new “Compendium,” the U.S. Copyright Office has stated that it will not register works created by animals. The “human authorship” requirement isn’t new, but the specific example of “[a] photograph taken by a monkey” is:…
Fight Continues Over Right to Monkey Selfie
It’s not looking so good for the monkey.
U.S. Patent App. No. 20140159444: Airline Passenger Torture Device
The application calls it "Seating Device Comprising a Forward-Foldable Backrest," but I like my name better. The inventor describes the alleged motivation thusly (my annotations below): [T]o increase the number of cabin seats [and thus profit], the space allotted to…
After Bar Fight, Cubs Are Fed Up with Unofficial Mascot
The Sun-Times reports today that the Chicago Cubs are suing five people who have allegedly been posing as a Cubs mascot near Wrigley Field, engaging in "mascot-like activities" and trying to charge people for photos. They take turns doing this—I didn't…