When Barnes and Noble used the phrase "Half Price Books" to promote online book sales, its competitor, halfpricebooks.com, sued for trademark infringement and dilution.

The plaintiff lost its motion for preliminary injunction, but has now escaped adverse summary judgment, with the district court ruling that the case could proceed to trial, reports News.com. 

Rejecting Barnes and Noble's summary judgment claim based on fair use, the court states:

"While BN.com's name is displayed on each and every page [of its Web site], a reasonable jury may find that the usage of 'Half-Price Books' on the webpage is sufficiently prominent to ...   more »

The National Law Journal for Monday, November 22, 2004, features an interesting editorial by Zick Rubin, entitled "Who Owns English?", regarding Entrepreneur Magazine's efforts to enforce its trademark rights in ENTREPRENEUR.

The magazine won a $1.4 million judgment against ENTREPRENEUR ILLUSTRATED earlier this year and allegedly used heavy-handed tactics to obtain the domain name www.entrepreneur.com.

Rubin's editorial puts these events in context of the actual facts applied to the underlying trademark law principles (once explained, the results are not as surprising), concluding:

"The bottom line is that while diligently protecting one's trademark is good business, being a trademark bully can ...   more »

In our class last night, we took on the challenge of understanding the shifting views of functionality, the doctrine that precludes trademark protection for utilitarian features.

We saw how the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals in In re Morton-Norwich Products, Inc., 671 F.2d 1332 (C.C.P.A. 1982), adopted the view that legal or de jure functionality was a subset of those features that are de facto functional.  The smaller subset involved those utilitarian features that were "superior" in light of the competitive necessity test stated in Ives Laboratories, Inc. v. Darby Drug Co., 601 F.2d 631 (2d Cir. 1979)....   more »

Our recent post about the Freedom Tower copyright infringement claim begs this question: what is the scope of copyright in architectural works?

After all, architectural works are normally useful articles which would be excluded for copyright protection.

But note that the exclusion for useful articles is narrower and specifically applies only to "pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works." 17 U.S.C 101.

Architectural works are a separate category of copyrightable subject matter, 17 U.S.C. 102(a)(8), and are defined as the design of a building embodied in any tangible medium, including a building, architectural plans, or drawings.  The work includes the overall form and ...   more »

Last April, Colt filed suit in Virginia accusing Bushmaster Firearms of copying Colt's M-4 rifle.  The case has now been transfered to Maine. 

The case apparently alleges copyright and trademark infringement according to this report, "Firearms copyright lawsuit to be heard."

If the report is accurate about the claims, Colt faces interesting hurdles. 

Under US law, copyright protection is not available for useful articles unless the work includes artistic elements that are physically or conceptually separable for the article itself. 

On the trademark side, product design can only be protected if it is not functional and if ...   more »

Morning Edition today included a report on the copyright issues involved in film footage of political speeches.  The piece, "Political Speech and the Public Domain," featuring Professor Lawrence Lessig, is available online here.   more »

A former Yale architecture student Thomas Shine filed suit on November 8, 2004, claiming that his design for a Manhattan skyscaper is infringed by the Freedom Tower design, according to this article by Larry Neumeister entitled "Brookline man sues designer of Freedom Tower, alleges copyright infringement."

The complaint alleges that the Freedom Tower designer David Shields saw Shine's design while judging students' work at Yale in 1999.

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Forbes.com reports on lawsuit by Avis Coatings Inc. against homeowners Linda and Alan Townsend over complaint site on the web in this article:  "Web Site for Complaints Sparks Lawsuit."   more »

We've previously noted here the challenge of dealing with domain name disputes based on personal names, particularly in the political arena.

Now that the campaigns are over and all are taking a deep breath, we can reflect back on one of the domain name disputes arising in the political campaign this year for the office of State's Attorney in Will County Illinois.

Shortly after he announced his candidacy, Jim Glasgow's name was registered in various forms with various gTLDs without his consent and used to redirect Internet users to a website dedicated to the incumbent Jeff Tomczak.

Curiously, Jim was listed ...   more »