David Gryce's IP BlogA deer in the headlights. That is how one may feel when crafting a transaction to take a business into a new market, negotiating a myriad of details and looking to finalize the transaction documents, only to find someone else has acquired the intellectual property needed to support the expansion. Take international distribution agreements and [...]
Illinois has upgraded its statutory framework for protecting non-public personal information (NPI). HB3025, which takes effect in 2012, amends Illinois Public Act 097-0483 (the Personal Information Protection Act) to cause Illinois to join a small but growing group of states attempting to impose more specific or enhanced data security, information disposal, and breach notification provisions on those who collect and/or store [...]
Look out, importers of “grey-market goods!” The Second Circuit is slamming the door! On August 15, 2011, the Second Circuit issued its opinion in John Wiley & Sons, Inc. v. Kirtsaeng, Docket No. 09-4896-cv. The opinion interprets the phrase “lawfully made under this title” in Section 109(a) of the U.S. Copyright Act to refer to copyrighted [...]
On August 3, 2011, the Ninth Circuit eliminated a seminal presumption upon which copyright claimants have relied for years. Prior to August 3, a showing of a likelihood of success on the merits of a copyright infringement claim triggered a presumption of irreparable harm in support of a request for preliminary injunctive relief. In Perfect 10 v. [...]
On July 27, 2011, the Washington D.C. Chapter of the Copyright Society assembled a panel to debate critical copyright issues framed in the Viacom v. YouTube appeal before the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. For details, see http://www.csusa.org/chapters_dc_area.cfm. This is a war of epic proportions. Depending on what side is speaking - and believe me there are [...]
Virtually every business outside of the porn industry is anxiously attempting to avoid being part of ICM Registry’s “.xxx” world and, perhaps more importantly, preventing the business’s trademarks from misappropriation by a ne’er-do-well cybersquatter. Well, in September, trademark owners will get their chance during the “Sunrise B” brand protection program period. A detailed policy announcement is due next [...]
When thinking about intellectual property, it is easy to get lost in the detail. Almost everything in the commercial world has an IP aspect to it: web content is awash in copyrights; product labels are replete with trademarks; technological advances are adorned with patent numbers; and EVERY business has its trade secrets. Moreover, every form of IP [...]
In case you missed it, 4.9 million patients had their personal health information compromised between September 2009 and September 2010. Nearly every state has a data security/data breach notification law. Massachusetts took it one step further and replaced the common “reasonable” data security standard with a detailed standard. And what does Colorado have in mind [...]
Trademarks and the demolition of silos! That is what this topic concerns. So long as “Marketing” and ”Legal,” as actual departments or as frames of reference, go about their respective tasks in isolation - communicating as little as possible and only with yes or no grunts - companies will literally spend millions of dollars defending the decisions that spring forth. Those [...]
The traditional music business model has centered around major labels providing distribution channels for the commercialization of music. With digital reproduction and distribution through the Internet either by way of downloading or streaming, as well as the proliferation of the means of reproduction, the labels no longer control all meaningful distribution channels and the means by which consumers experience music. Music to which consumers [...]
