Alt Legal IP News – Issue #27
Hannah Samendinger | March 01, 2017
You can now subscribe to our podcast, Alt Trademarks, on iTunes and Google Play. Our latest episode features Autumn Witt Boyd of The Law Office of Autumn Witt Boyd. We discuss starting a virtual solo practice and offering legal services to creative businesses.
Sorry for the delay in this week’s newsletter. As you might have heard, a pretty sizable part of the internet wasn’t working yesterday.
Need For Speed
– Waymo, operated by Google’s parent company Alphabet, is suing Uber and its subsidiary Otto over the alleged digital theft of IP (14,000 confidential files to be exact).
– Is Honda getting into sports cars?
– The main thing I look for in a hairbrush is high velocity.
Copyrights Here, There, and Everywhere
– FedEx was recently involved in a first-of-its-kind Creative Commons dispute.
– Mind the [Canadian copyright] gap.
– The Vatican has vowed to protect a holy copyright.
– The number of biopics seems to be increasing, with the most recent featuring Britney Spears. What does it take to get all the necessary rights to make a biopic?
Back In My Day…
– Can you leverage trademark law to commercialize a meme?
– Apple filed a patent for technology that looks a lot like Bitmoji.
– A fun (non-legal) reminder of how much things have changed.
Odds and Ends
– Starting a brewery any time soon? You might want to reconsider naming your beer after yourself.
– There are several great legal events coming up, some with early bird registration closing soon: (1) ABA Tech Show, March 15-18 in Chicago, IL (2) ABAIPL Annual Meeting, April 4-6 in Alexandria, VA (Register by 3/15 for an early bird discount) (3) INTA Annual Meeting, May 20-24, Barcelona, Spain (Early bird registration closes March 3). If you come to any of these events make sure to find us and say hi!
– Beer scented darts, the Tarzan yell, and other unusual company and celebrity trademarks.
– A pending unanswered FOIA request might shed some light on the status of Michelle Lee but for now it seems she is still working at the USPTO and SCOTUS is soliciting her expertise.
– There has been a Star Wars development.
– Harvard Law Review has elected its first black female president in its 130 years as a journal. And can you guess who the first black male president of that journal was?