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In LeBron James’ house, Tuesday nights mean one thing: Tacos. In a series of Instagram posts last year, the NBA superstar gleefully announced to his 50-plus million followers that he and his family were enjoying the tradition of eating tacos on Tuesday. It picked up enough attention that James decided to file an intent-to-use trademark application for TACO TUESDAY, including for “advertising and marketing services,” “podcasting services,” and “online entertainment services” (see, Ser. No. 88579771). But as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and numerous other outlets reported, the application was refused by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in a Sept. 11, 2019 office action. One reason given for the refusal was that the applied-for mark did not “function as a trademark.” See, http://bit.ly/39JPoO7.
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Recommendations for Evolving Patent Eligibility of Hardware
By Hanchel Cheng
Regardless of whether a patent practitioner’s clients favor a stricter or more lenient eligibility regime, patent eligibility decisions continue to evolve. We need a line drawn for what practitioners expect to be clearer. Hardware inventions are facing patent eligibility challenges that would have seemed more likely in software inventions. Recent court decisions have shown that what once made a hardware invention eligible may no longer fly.
Fishing for Joint Patent Ownership Under 'BASF v. CSIRO'
By Richard S.J. Hung, Jacob N. Nagy and Evangeline T. Phang
A recent Federal Circuit opinion sheds light on the process for settling co-ownership disputes pursuant to an underlying agreement. Although the precedential opinion does not change the rules of contract interpretation, it suggests considerations when drafting ownership agreements.
By Stan Soocher
Composers of pre-1978 works often assigned both the initial and renewal copyright terms in their works when signing songwriter agreements with music publishers. But what happens when a grant of the copyright renewal term of a pre-1978 work has been made post-1977?
Commentary: What the Music Industry Can Learn from Cable When It Comes to ISPs and Infringement
By Keith Hauprich
In the last two decades, the music industry and, more specifically, songwriters, producers and recording artists have been losing the value of their efforts to online piracy. Perhaps a business-to-business solution can be found between the music industry and cable providers.
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