Federal trademark law requires trademark owners to police their marks. This means that trademark owners must diligently enforce their rights to prevent their marks from being used by others without permission. Although there's no fixed statute of limitations for a federal trademark infringement lawsuit, an infringer can raise a defense known as "laches." The laches doctrine is based on the [...]
Businesses are understandably upset when they discover that someone is posting negative online reviews or other disparaging comments about their products, services or operations on social media. Some companies have tried to protect themselves against negative reviews by adding clauses to their terms of service and other contracts that prohibit customers from making disparaging comments. Other companies take a different [...]
Under US law, a work is not protected by copyright unless that work shows "at least some minimal degree of creativity." Last month, a judge in the Northern District of Florida held that before-and-after images of dental work do not meet even that low threshold of creativity and, therefore, that the photos at issue had no copyright protection. A Boca [...]
An administrative law judge recently held that an employer's policy against moonlighting without the company's approval violates the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). This decision applies even to businesses with no unionized employees. Section 7 of the NLRA gives employees the right to "engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection." [...]
Last year, Oregon's law forbidding all handheld uses of mobile electronic devices while driving took effect. As of this past Sunday (July 1st), the penalties have increased significantly and can even include jail time for serial offenders. The law applies to use of cell phones, tablets, kindles, laptops, GPS units, mobile music players and all other electronic devices that are [...]
Often when someone copies all or part of somebody else's copyrighted material, they think they have a defense to any copyright infringement claim because of the doctrine of "fair use." Unfortunately, in many situations, it's not that easy to know whether the copying would actually be considered "fair use," and the result may be a lawsuit. Just a few weeks [...]
A recent survey shows that small businesses are much less likely than their larger counterparts to have formal sexual harassment policies, making them much more vulnerable to claims of sexual harassment. Regardless of size, all employers should have appropriate written sexual harassment policies and training procedures (including classes, videos, and the like) in place. While the applicable federal law applies [...]
Some of our clients have received invoices and "important notifications" from companies offering to monitor or renew their trademarks and/or record their trademark registrations with US Customs & Border Protection (USCBP). One invoice, from Glotrade s.r.o., offers a "similarity service that protects your trademark from copyright infringement" for one year for the price of $2,890. This incomprehensible sentence, which confuses [...]
A book's title is not protected by US copyright law, but it can sometimes be protected by trademark law. A title of a single work may be protected if the owner can prove that consumers associate it with a particular source, but only a title used for a series of works (two or more) can be registered with the US Patent and [...]
The US Copyright Office has just announced a proposed new fee schedule. The Office proposes raising fees for a standard electronic copyright application from $55 to $75. Fees for a "single" electronic application would go up to $55 from $35, and fees for a paper application would rise to $125 from $85. The already hefty fee of $800 for expedited processing [...]