Blogging Do's and Don'ts
January 26, 2007
With the rush to create content, it's easy to forget that all business communications directed to the public are subject to a variety of laws, regulations and other legal concerns. This article provides a high-level overview of the key points to keep in mind as you assess whether your company-related blog is legally compliant.
Right of 'Informational Privacy' Upheld In NJ
January 26, 2007
In a case of first impression under New Jersey law, an appeals court has held that Internet subscribers have a reasonable expectation of privacy, allowing a challenge to a subpoena that led to an indictment for computer-related theft.
Right of 'Informational Privacy' Upheld In NJ
January 26, 2007
In a case of first impression under New Jersey law, an appeals court has held that Internet subscribers have a reasonable expectation of privacy, allowing a challenge to a subpoena that led to an indictment for computer-related theft.
The EPA May Take a Close Look at Regulating Nano-Particles in Antimicrobial Articles and Devices
January 03, 2007
Nano-scale materials are said to have unique and potentially valuable properties in comparison to the same materials that exist naturally in larger than nano-scales, which can include greater tensile strength, enhanced electrical conductivity, and the ability to contribute to new chemical synthesis pathways. These unique properties may lead to advances in industrial chemistry, engineering, biological, agricultural and medical applications. The U.S. Government's spending alone on nanotechnology research is said to exceed $1 billion annually, and the Government of China has recently announced that nanotechnology is one of 16 key technologies for which it will increase research and development spending over the next 15 years. As Chinese companies increasingly design, develop, and manufacture products based on nanotechnology, and export these products to the United States, they will confront and need to understand the emerging perspectives and concerns of U.S. government regulators who are struggling to reckon with perhaps hundreds of products employing nanotechnology that reportedly are already on the market and perhaps thousands more products soon to come on the market. U.S. Federal agencies are working independently, and occasionally in concert, to try to identify appropriate policies and practices to monitor and respond to this apparently sweeping new market development. See, e.g., National Science and Technology Council effort known as the National Nanotechnology Initiative.
IP News
December 29, 2006
Highlights of the latest intellectual property news from around the country.
When Winning Might Also Be Losing: The Preclusive Effects of Defending a Trademark Application or Registration
December 29, 2006
Last summer, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in <i>Jean Alexander Cosmetics, Inc. v. L'Oreal USA, Inc.</i>, 458 F.3d 244 (3rd Cir. 2006), joined a majority of the courts of appeal in holding that it would give full preclusive effect to any of the alternative holdings of a prior adjudication. In so doing, the court further highlighted the necessity of thinking both offensively and defensively at the earliest stages of a trademark dispute, including during proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board ('TTAB').
Protecting Trade Dress in Once-Patented Subject Matter
December 29, 2006
The recent decision, <i>Fuji Kogyo Co. v. Pacific Bay Int'l, Inc.</i>, 461 F.3d 675 (6th Cir. 2006), confronts the question deliberately left unresolved in <i>TrafFix Devices, Inc. v. Marketing Displays, Inc.</i>, 532 U.S. 23 (2001), of whether a product design claimed in a prior utility patent can ever be protectable trade dress under the Lanham Act. Although setting a high bar to protectability, indeed a 'presumption' and 'heavy burden' that material claimed in a utility patent is functional and hence unprotectable once the patent term ends, the Supreme Court, of course, expressly elected not to foreclose such protection entirely. Thus, it refused the invitation of defendant TrafFix, and 'some of its amici,' to rule that 'the Patent Clause of the Constitution, Art. I '8, cl. 8, of its own force, prohibits the holder of an expired utility patent from claiming trade dress protection.' 532 U.S. at 35. Without itself addressing the constitutional question of how narrowly 'limited times' means 'limited times,' <i>Fuji Kogyo</i> does nothing to ease the burden in establishing trade dress protection for once-patented subject matter; it offers as well a new (if, perhaps, less than fully developed) analytical approach for applying the <i>TrafFix</i> presumption, asking whether the claimed trade dress would have infringed the expired patents.
