INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY The White House Takes Aim at Patent Trolls Frustration with patent trolls, and momentum for reform, has been building for some time now. Today, the stakes got even higher when the White House announced that it was actively taking on the troll problem. This is big news, and not just because of the [...]
If you’re scouring the Internet looking at the millions of photos that come in on a simple Google search, then think again before you copy and paste a photo to use on your website. Getty Images owns millions of the photographs online, and they have a bot that searches the Internet looking for their [...]
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Whose Patent is it Anyway? New Bill to End Patent Anonymity Representative Ted Deutch (D-FL) introduced a new transparency bill last week called the End Anonymous Patents Act (H.R. 2024, PDF)—the third piece of legislation in the last year to take on the problem of patent trolls. The bill sets out to solve [...]
Melfi & Associates attended this week’s event at Campus Martius Park in an effort to help bring the X Games to Detroit. There were ramps set up with BMXers and skateboarders riding in the rain’s aftermath, graffiti artists painting, live music from the Beastie Boys’ own Mixmaster Mike, drinks, and tons of people that [...]
Eminem’s song publisher is suing Facebook over a recent Facebook Home ad that allegedly infringes on “Under the Influence,” an Eminem song released in 2006. This is a reminder that artists should consider copyrighting their own original works so that they are entitled to greater copyright protection under the law. Melfi & Associates works with [...]
Registering your trademark entitles you to more adequate protection of your brand, it puts those on notice that your mark is being used in commerce as of a specific registration date, it allows you to place the ® beside your logo designating that your mark is registered, and registering is relatively inexpensive. All businesses should [...]
DIGITAL LAW How a Bitcoin Transaction Actually Works There’s a lot out there about Bitcoin transactions. We found this nifty chart to help clarify and educate our readers on how the process unfolds. FULL ARTICLE. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW Another Bill to Fix the Patent Troll Problem… Well, Part of It Though it was paraded [...]
DIGITAL LAW The US Senate Just Passed That Internet Sales Tax Bill That massive online sales tax hike that senators were pushing through? Yeah, it’s looking more and more likely. The US senate just held a final vote on the Internet Sales tax issue and it passed 69-27, getting support from both Democrats and Republicans. [...]
Chick-Fil-A is arguing that a Vermont man’s t-shirt business is infringing on their Eat Mor Chickin trademark. The slogan in question reads Eat More Kale, which doesn’t, on its face, seem to generate any consumer confusion as to who is producing the t-shirts. Would you read Eat More Kale and instantaneously think that Chick-Fil-A was [...]
If bill S. 607 is approved, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) would federally regulate the protection afforded to electronic mail accounts. Now, only after a subpoena has been attained, can the Department of Justice (DOJ) access private Facebook messages and email account activity. While this bill merely sets a federal standard, there are [...]
