CA Considers Law to Protect Band Names
Every night in Las Vegas, Baby Boomers plunk down $47.30 each and file into the Sahara Hotel & Casino's Congo Room to revisit the sounds of their youth. They've come to spend an evening with 'The Platters, Drifters, Coasters.' It's a performance steeped in nostalgia, save one element: None of the artists on stage were ever members of the musical groups that most remember as the Platters, the Coasters or the Drifters.
Cameo Clips
Copyright Infringement/Claim Dismissal; Decryption-Software Sales/Illegality Defense.
Decision of Note: Songs in Karaoke Not Fair Use
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided that the unlicensed use of songs for karaoke recordings was not a fair use. <i>Zomba Enterprises Inc. v. Panorama Records Inc.</i>, 06-5013.
Internet Music Stream vs. Download
If a music file is downloaded to a computer and no one is there to play it, does it constitute a performance? This is not some question from a digital-age freshman philosophy seminar ' it was the legal issue recently facing Judge William C. Connor in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in <i>United States v. American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)</i>, 485 F.Supp.2d 438 (S.D.N.Y. 2007).
Verdicts
Recent rulings of interest to you and your practice.
Lease Financing of Solar Power
Hardly a day goes by without major media attention to global warming and the need to develop and invest in sources of alternative energy. Legislation to encourage investment in renewable energy has bipartisan support. Tax legislation passed in 2005 and 2006 extended the renewable energy production tax credit and the energy investment tax credit to facilities placed in service before Jan. 1, 2009. Further extension and expansion of these credits is expected from the current Congress. The extension of the tax credits, the adoption of minimum alternative energy requirements by many states, and greater public and political support for alternative energy resources have increased interest in the development and financing of wind, biomass, geothermal, and solar facilities. An active financing market has developed.
IP News
Highlights of the latest intellectual property news from around the country.
What Proves That a Mark Has Become Generic?
Generic names for goods and services may not be registered as trademarks under the Lanham Act, and registered marks that have become the generic name for the goods or services may be cancelled at any time (15 U.S.C. §14(3)). Words that were originally trademarks designating the source for particular products, such as 'escalator' and 'thermos,' have lost that status and become the generic name for all such products. Companies whose marks are in danger of losing their distinctiveness as source indicators may take steps to raise the public's consciousness and prevent their marks from becoming generic. One such well-known advertising campaign is run by Xerox Corporation to educate the public to use a 'photocopying machine' or 'to photocopy' in place of the registered trademark XEROX.
