By: Alana M. Fuierer On December 27th, 2020, the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021 (the “Act”) was signed into law. Despite commonly being thought of as merely a “Coronavirus Relief Bill”, it surprisingly contained much more than COVID-19 relief. One of the lesser-known parts of the Act is the Trademark Modernization Act (“TMA”) which amends the…
By: David P. Miranda In 1986 Congress passed the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), to address crimes that occur via unauthorized access to computer. In Van Buren v. United States, 206 L. Ed. 2d 822 (2020), Nathan Van Buren, a police officer in the state of Georgia, was charged under the CFAA after he…
By: David P. Miranda This column typically discusses legal topics related to technology, this month we look at how technology relates to the law, specifically our court system. In the midst of a pandemic, our world in lockdown, lawyers are learning to navigate the challenges of working remotely. These circumstances provided the Chief Judge of…
By: Wayne F. Reinke There is some concern in the patent-sphere about the CAFC conflating §101 (patentable subject matter) with §112 (issues with claim wording and/or support of claims in specification) and other considerations. There is no better example of this than the recently modified (twice) opinion of July 31, 2020 for American Axle &…
By: Benjamin D. Bucinell In Boesen v. United Sports Publications, Ltd., Case No. 20-CV-1552 (ARR) (SIL) (E.D.N.Y.), United Sports Publication (USP) prevails in a Copyright infringement claim by photographer, Michael Boesen related to a social media post. On December 6, 2019, Caroline Wozniacki, announced her retirement from professional Tennis on Instagram. This announcement was accompanied…
By: Benjamin D. Bucinell In 1718 Black Beard’s ship, Queen Ann’s Revenge, ran aground and sank about a mile of the shore of North Carolina. Black Beard’s ship belonged to North Carolina, but the videos and images of its recovery efforts were the intellectual property of Frederick Allen, who registered copyrights in all his works….
By: Lloyd J. Wilson There are many reasons you may choose to start your own business, with one of those reasons being that you believe the businesses will be financially successful. Patents may be key to helping you achieve your financial goals, but understanding whether to get a patent, how to get a patent, and…
By: Benjamin D. Bucinell Google v. Oracle, currently pending before the US Supreme Court, has the potential to provide one of the most significant copyright decisions from SCOTUS involving the tech industry. Application Programing Interfaces (APIs) are an important tool, widely utilized in interoperability between platforms. The tech and software industry has assumed that APIs…
By: Stephen P. Scuderi Jack Daniel’s iconic bottle design is an example of a famous trade dress, which is registered as a trademark. In order to maintain the value of its trademark, Jack Daniel’s has aggressively and successfully policed its trade dress design against several competitive distilleries. However, Jack Daniel’s may have bitten off more…
By: Alana M. Fuierer, Esq. A trademark (or service mark) is a business asset akin to other forms of intellectual property (e.g. patents, copyrights) and tangible business assets. And, yes, it is true that, just like other tangible or intangible business assets, trademarks frequently are bought, sold, transferred, licensed, and even used as security interest. …