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2007 Corporate Patent Congress Conference

One of the greatest benefits of blogging the last couple of years has been the ability to speak at different conferences and CLE programs.  Both Matt and I have greatly enjoyed our experiences and travels this past year and look forward to meeting m

New Law Jobs posted at LegalMojo

Recent law jobs at LegalMojo  :

• Patent Attorney - INTELLECTUAL LAW GROUP Bellevue, Washington Patent
  
• Prosecution Associates - FENWICK & WEST Mountain View, CA
  
• Patent Prosecution Associate or Agent - VISTA IP LAW GROUP Saratoga, California
  
• Patent Attorney - LONDON London, England
  
• Corporate Associate - GALILEO GROUP Washington, DC
  
• IP Counsel - PROCTER & GAMBLE Cincinnati, OH
  
• Intellectual Property Law and Policy Counsel - IPO Washington, D.C,

Oprah Pay-it-forward IP style

As you may have heard, in October 2006, Oprah surprised her studio audience with the Pay-it-forward Challenge.  Audience members were given $1000 and had to come up with inspiring and creative ways to help others.  Strange that none of the over 300 audience members touched on one of the greatest gifts you can give another person…intellectual property.  Intellectual property is the gift that keeps on giving sometimes 20 years (e.g. patent) and in other cases more than 70 years (e.g. trademark).  So for those who still may be holding onto Oprah’s $1000 with no clue on how to give it away, I suggest the following:

• Go ahead and give your best friend a couple of hours of “attorney time.”  This time could be used for patent drafting or maybe even a conference call.  With attorney time, the possibilities are endless.
• So your brother enlisted the help of a patent attorney to draft a patent application, but ran out of money before filing.  He would really appreciate you paying the filing fee, search fee, and examination fee for a utility patent (attorney fees not included).  Maybe as a bonus, you can spring for a couple of drawings.
• Your neighbor made it through one office action after another and just last week the Notice of Allowance came in the mail but uh-oh – there is no money to cover the issue fee.  Step right up and pay it for her.
• We aren’t just talking patents people, why not grab the owner of your favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurant and offer to pay the filing fee for the federal trademark application for his service mark, “Joey’s Tiki Taco and Salad Stand.”
• Your cousin has been working very hard on that rap album.  Go ahead and offer to pay the filing fee for copyright protection on his dope rhymes.

Many more examples can be found in the United States Patent and Trademark Office Fee Schedule where the only limits are your imagination and the $1000.

Okay, it may not be providing shoes for needy children or adopting a woman’s shelter, but as Oprah says, “I’ve given away cars and houses and my favorite things, and I can honestly say that every gift I’ve ever given has brought at least as much happiness to me as it has to the person I’ve given it to.”

So if by chance I’m lucky enough to be in Oprah’s audience on her next big Pay-it-forward Challenge, you know the happiness I will be providing….intellectual property.

andy griffith sues andrew griffith

And you thought all the news about political campaigns and intellectual property would be over now that elections have ended. Don’t worry, it’s not over yet. Check out this story. William H. Fenrick, candidate for sheriff in Grant County Wisconsin, recently legally changed his name to Andy Griffith, allegedly in hopes of increasing his chances of winning the election. Andy Griffith, the actor, found out and recently filed suit against Fenrick alleging he violated various trademark, copyright, and privacy laws. The actor claims that Fenrick changed his name for the "sole purpose of taking advantage of Griffith’s notoriety in an attempt to gain votes." Fenrick argues that he did not benefit from the name change as he lost the election and that the lawsuit is absurd because no one would actually think that he was the actor. Looks like he should have tried appropriating a different name. One of the posted comments to this story suggested that Fenrick should hire Matlock as his attorney.

Alleged Copyright Infringement: Jodi Cobb v. Geisha House

Jodi Cobb, a photojournalist, recently filed suit against the LA restaurant, Geisha House, alleging that the restaurant used the picture from the cover of her book Geisha: The Life, the Voices, the Art (seen on the right at the top).  A

llegedly, Ms. Cobb’s picture was used in the restaurant’s signage on Hollywood Boulevard (seen on the right at the bottom), on business cards, matchbooks, menus, and even chopstick holders.  The Geisha House argues that it is not the same photograph. 

The restaurant stated that they wanted to use Cobb’s picture however, her licensing fees were too high.  Instead, the restaurant argues that they created their own version of Cobb’s picture.  It appears that the restaurant may have been trying to assert the defense of independent creation by arguing that they independently created the work.  However, according to Nimmer on Copyright, evidence of access and substantial similarity are sufficient to create an inference of copying.  It seems to me that the Geisha House may be in a bit of Geisha-trouble.

Intellectual Property and the political agenda...

On this Election Eve, the applicability of intellectual property laws in political campaigns and political groups surfaces.  Without disclosing my political bias, I give the following two examples and ask to what extent should copyrights/trademarks be compromised for a political agenda?

• The Downwinders at Risk created an 8–foot Styrofoam float featuring the head of Texas governor, Rick Perry, sucking fumes from a smokestack.  The electric company TXU is threatening suit because the float features the company’s trademark, a blue-and-white star-burst logo. 

• Republican campaign mailers challenge Democratic opponent Charlie Brown using some familiar “Peanuts” iconic images including the Charlie Brown shirt and Lucy’s psychiatric booth.  Charles M. Schulz, the son of the “Peanuts” creator, is questioning whether the mailer infringes on the cartoon’s copyright protection.  Good grief…

Inventor article : snarky or inspiring?

An uplifting inventor article? 

Well, the Northwest Indiana News has an interesting way to lead into a story:

Herbert Bigelow has an invention. So what. He also has a patent pending. Big deal.

And I thought PHOSITA could get a bit snarky from time to time.

Mele Kalikimade is the Hawaiian's way

Things are getting hot out in the Pacific, and it isn’t at the luau.  Kim Taylor Reece, known internationally for his hula photography, claims Leialoha Colucci’s stained glass art, offered for sale at a Kaliua gallery, infringes on his photo “Makanani.”   The Ilioulaoklalani Coalition is claiming that Kim Taylor Reece is just trying to copyright the hula move itself saying that “Makanani” is just a photo of a woman in a particular hula pose on the beach. 

This isn’t just an ordinary snapshot of a hula dancer.  The photo was actually taken with Kim Taylor Reece lying in water with the model kneeling in the sand putting emphasis on the upward reach of her right arm and hand.  Leialoha’s stained glass, interestingly enough, has the same kneeling position, at the same angle, and just to take it one step further – the same windblown hair. 

Not surprising – the court held Reece’s photo had copyrightable aspects including the particularities of her pose, the angle Reece captured her, and her expression.   Somewhat surprising – the term “racist” is being thrown around.  Mahalo.

Magic and Intellectual Property Law: A Mysterious Combination

Last weekend my husband and I went to see The Prestige with Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale – great movie, I would definitely recommend it.  The movie is about two rival magicians who are constantly trying to steal one another’s ideas and illusions.  During the movie I knew that I had officially become an IP nerd when I thought to myself, “I wonder if these illusions could be protected by trade secret law?”  Well, after a quick search on the internet I found a fun article on Wikipedia applying the various aspects of intellectual property law to magic.  Enjoy!

Flickr Interestingness Rankings Patents Released

Over at the SEO by the SEA blog, William Slawski has posted on newly published patent applications filed by Yahoo convering an implementation of the concept of “interestingness search.” 

There is a pretty good exchange in the comments between William and Thomas Hawk – a celebrated photographer on the Internet and someone who is directly involved with the Zooomr web photo service. 

Zoomr is a direct competitor with Flickr, which is now owned by Yahoo.  Presumably Zoomr may have some issues if the patents are ever issued.  As a word of caution to Thomas (and all other bloggers out there) – I would be very careful in what you say about your technology and when/how/who it was developed.   All of your comments could be used as admissions down the line.

Anyway…

While the discussion between Thomas and William follows the typical “software patent discussion framework”(TM) of outrage, more outrage, denial, and chest thumping about how “Person X, Y, Z” came up with the idea 1, 2, 4 or 100 years ago… I was pleased to notice that William and Thomas actually took some time to thoughtfully discuss what Yahoo was trying to do with its patent applications and how they fit in with the overall search and photo-sharing market out there.

My only quarrel with their discussion: like all that fall within the “software patent discussion framework”(TM) — they failed to look at the actual claims of the patent and instead debated the description that the inventor drafted.  Once again – it is the claims that control the scope of the patent, not the description directly. 

All discussion of patents or patent applications should start first and foremost with the claims… it is the claims that control.

As a taste of what to expect over at SEO by the SEA:

Flickr Interestingness Rankings Patents Released

posted @ 2:17 am in [ Social Search ] by William Slawski

I’ve posted some pictures to Flickr, but I’ve never really paid much attention to the “interestingness” rankings the site uses.

Interestingness and clustering were first used in August of last year, as announced by Stewart Butterfield on the Yahoo Search Blog and the Flickr blog.

Blog posts about Flickr’s interestingness, and a February Flickr forum post on changes to the interestingness rankings, show a lot of interest in the “secret sauce” on how photos are determined to be interesting. A couple of patent applications were published by Yahoo this week that delve into interestingness rankings, clustering of pictures, and metadata associated with Flickr images.

EFF Sues Michael Crook for Bogus DMCA Claims

Be very careful when you make threats against ISPs under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).  The Electronic Frontier Foundation is taking the issues seriously and are pushing for a preliminary injunction to stop the potential har

A Patent Application or a Soapbox?

Wow... wow.... all I can say is ... wow. U.S. Patent Application No. 2004/0161257 has this little nugget in it as claim number 9. I applaud whoever drafted the application for their sense of spunk, but you really have to wonder.... what were they thinkin

Happy Halloween from PHOSITA!

Don't let the ghouls and goblins get you tonight! 

We here at PHOSITA will be passing out copies of reexamined software patents to all the little trick or treat'rs... um um good!

While you are at it… you might want to check out Denise Howell’s spook-tacular Blawg Review No. 81 over at Bag & Baggage.  Lots of great legal blogging to read along with some hair raising videos.

I wonder how long it will take until our windows are soaped?

Research Help: How many patent attorneys sit on corporate board of directors?

Help! 

I know the erudite readers of PHOSITA may have valuable information I need:

I am working on article regarding the makeup of corporate board of directors and I am trying to get a sense of how many patent attorneys are directors.

If you know of anyone or have a suspicion, please send it my way.

Thanks and hopefully this will be picked up around the IP corner of the blog-o-sphere... hint, hint, hint, hint, hint, hint...

Image via Flickr.