intellectual-property

California Environmental Nonprofit Says State Redesigned License Plate To Cut It Out Of Royalties
By Phil Villarreal on August 4, 2011 11:15 AM  
The California Coastal Commission unveiled a new license plate design featuring a whale's tale tweaked slightly from the previous design, and an environmental nonprofit said the state did so because the artist who created the previous design asked for royalties to help fund the organization. More Â»

Original Madden Video Game Creator Sues EA For Billions
By Phil Villarreal on April 4, 2011 10:15 AM  
Sports simulation games take strides to replicate their real-life counterparts, but Madden NFL game publisher EA would rather not be facing a legal dispute that somewhat echoes the NFL's labor troubles. More Â»

Some Hotmail Users Report Vanishing Accounts -- Microsoft Says Problem Is Fixed
By Phil Villarreal on January 3, 2011 9:45 AM  
Whenever you clean out your Hotmail inbox, you get a message complimenting you on the feat. Some Hotmail users reportedly found themselves with an accidentally clean inbox due to an apparent server error that has deleted their accounts More Â»

Fox Sues Screenwriter With Script Database For $15M
By Phil Villarreal on November 29, 2010 9:15 AM  
Instead of messing with Wolverine, smarmy Marvel anti-hero Deadpool has his sights set on a Long Island screenwriter. He's called upon his bosses at 20th Century Fox to sue the writer for $15 million because she posted Fox screenplays, including an early copy of the script from his upcoming movie, the New York Post reports. More Â»

Nintendo Wants To Trademark "It's On Like Donkey Kong"
By Chris Morran on November 10, 2010 5:11 PM  
Even though people have been using the phrase "It's on like Donkey Kong" for two decades, Nintendo has just gotten around to filing a request with the Patent and Trademark office to slap a little "TM" on those words. More Â»

Conan Dares NBC To Sue Him Over Masturbating Bear
By Chris Morran on October 27, 2010 3:30 PM  
It's always tricky when a popular talk show host changes networks and tries to bring some of his associated gags and characters along with them. That's the situation facing Conan O'Brien as he preps to launch his new TBS show and expects the suits at his former network NBC to have some complaints. More Â»

General Mills Sues So You Don't Confuse Pillsbury Doughboy With "My Dough Girl" Bakery
By Carey Alexander on August 7, 2010 4:00 PM  
Great news, easily confused consumers! General Mills has forced the local Utah bakery "My Dough Girl" to change its name so you won't confuse their hand-crafted specialty cookies with the Pillsbury Doughboy. The company sent the two-year-old local bakery a cease and desist letter complete with a gag order explaining that the bakery could "tarnish the company's reputation." More Â»

Hurt Locker Producer Sues "Moron" Downloaders
By Marc Perton on June 1, 2010 4:57 PM  
Nicolas Chartier, the movie producer who was banned from the Oscars for sending nastygrams about Avatar, and more recently, told a critic, "you're a moron who believes stealing is right. I hope your family and your kids end up in jail," is nothing if not consistent. Chartier has made good on his earlier threat to sue people who downloaded copies of The Hurt Locker, by filing a suit against 5,000 anonymous downloaders in Washington, D.C. More Â»

Would You Like To Buy A Facebook Account?
By Phil Villarreal on May 4, 2010 11:11 AM  
If you've got $45 burning a hole in your special black market fund and have a hankering for a bundle of 1,000 stolen or fake Facebook accounts, you might want to talk to your friendly neighborhood social networking pirate. More Â»

NYC Police Dept Stops Giving Counterfeit Clothing To Charity
By Chris Walters on January 13, 2010 6:20 PM  
It turns out H&M and Walmart aren't the only two organizations caught destroying clothes they couldn't sell. Yesterday the New York Times reported that the NYC Police Department has also been destroying clothing that would otherwise be wearable. The big difference this time is that the clothing is counterfeit. More Â»

Browns Fan's Case Against EA Dismissed, Will Probably Be Settled
By Phil Villarreal on October 16, 2009 5:05 PM  

—>It looks like Big Dawg is getting his.  More Â»

Browns Fan Sues Because Madden Game Shows His Iconic Mask
By Phil Villarreal on October 6, 2009 2:39 PM  

—>Cleveland Browns fanatic John "Big Dawg" Thompson, famous for wearing an intimidating bulldog mask in Cleveland's rowdy Dawg Pound section, is suing Electronic Arts for using his likeness in the Madden NFL 10 video game, several video game blogs are reporting..  More Â»

Corporate Lawyer To Corporations: Stop Suing Websites!
By Carey Alexander on April 4, 2009 9:00 PM  

—>A well-respected lawyer has a simple message for corporations: stop suing disgruntled customers who start websites to air their grievances. Though William Pecau of Steptoe & Johnson thinks that online gripers are "self-righteous narcissists with time on their hands," he also realizes that "shutting down a gripe site generally is not easy, often cannot be done, and often is counterproductive." Pecau goes on to explain exactly why most online gripers are safe from over-hyped takedown notices...  More Â»

MonsterCable Offers Wilted Olive Branch To MonsterMiniGolf
By Ben Popken on December 15, 2008 3:55 PM  

—>With the launch of monsterminigolftruth.com MonsterCable has offered a wilted olive branch to Monster Mini Golf. In summary:  More Â»

Tell Monster Cable To Stop Suing A Monster-Themed MiniGolf Park
By Ben Popken on December 10, 2008 9:40 PM  

—>If you would like to tell Monster Cable that they're jerks for trying to shut down the family owned and operated Monster MiniGolf...  More Â»

Monster Cable Sues Monster MiniGolf For Trademark Infringement
By Ben Popken on December 3, 2008 6:57 PM  

—>Monster Cable has decided to sue Monster MiniGolf for trademark infringement. Monster MiniGolf is a family startup by Patrick & Christina Vitagliano glow-in-the-dark monster-themed minigolf franchise with 23 locations. Monster Cable, which has an illustrious history of suing anything and everything with Monster in its name, makes the expensive cables that Best Buy is always trying to upsell you on that are no better than coat hangers.   More Â»

Leaked ACTA Treaty Will Outlaw P2P
By Chris Walters on June 6, 2008 7:25 PM  

—>ACTA—the misleadingly named "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement"—is the worldwide copyright treaty that's being negotiated behind closed doors, and that will create a sort of global DMCA if continues in its current state. Now Wikileaks has posted a draft of the treaty, and Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow gives his take:  More Â»

All Saints Apparel Plagiarizes Shirt Design From Gaming Site 4 Color Rebellion
By Carey Alexander on February 23, 2008 1:21 PM  

—>Posh London retailer All Saints Apparel plagiarized a shirt design from the gaming site 4 color rebellion. The site originally unveiled the 'You Complete Me' tetris-heart figure for Valentine's Day in 2006. Designer Mitch was surprised to find that All Saints had plastered the exact same design on a shirt selling for £40—that's like, $90! Mitch asked All Saints for an explanation, which was enough to prompt a decent resolution.  More Â»

Harvard Bookstore: "We Own ISBN Numbers"
By Chris Walters on September 24, 2007 8:34 PM  

—> The Harvard Crimson ran a story last week about a student who was asked to leave the premises for writing down the prices of six textbooks at the Coop, Harvard's bookstore of record. The bookstore's president says that there's no official policy against students writing down information, but "we discourage people who are taking down a lot of notes." But what's more surprising, he tells the Crimson that the textbooks' ISBNs—which can be used to look up the same books online—are "the Coop's intellectual property."  More Â»

Manufacturer Claims eBaying Its Car Parts Violates "Intellectual Property Rights"
By consumerist.com on July 18, 2007 4:57 PM  

—>Manufacturers are getting eBay auctions canceled for selling their products "too cheaply," reports the Consumer Law & Policy blog...  More Â»