Stacy J Grossman A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece about the November Sony cyber attack, and that company’s decision to cancel the theatrical release of the film The Interview in response to anonymous terror threats believed to have originated in North Korea. At the time, Sony was widely criticized for submitting to the threats, and for … Read more
The fallout from a massive cyber attack on Sony in November escalated tremendously this week. After exposing embarrassing emails and confidential company information, stealing the screenplay for an upcoming James Bond movie, and posting five movies on illegal file sharing sites, the hackers next threatened to attack cinemas slated to show the film The Interview. … Read more
Disney’s Frozen – An Intellectual Property Fairy Tale On this especially cold day in the Northeast, my thoughts are on the coming winter. And winter reminds me of the cold, and of feeling frozen. And the word frozen reminds me of Disney’s Frozen, the highest-grossing animated film of all-time — both in theaters and in … Read more
Owning a United States trademark registration for a brand confers a number of benefits. This article will help you understand what to consider and what to expect as you select, adopt and apply to register a new trademark. Clearance Trademark clearance involves searching (either through an in-house search or a comprehensive search performed by a … Read more
Years before I was a lawyer, I saw Vanilla Ice on The Tonight Show. Jay Leno asked whether his song, Ice Ice Baby (listen to seconds 8-24) sounds like David Bowie’s Under Pressure (listen to seconds 9-20). I’ve not seen a transcript of the interview, but my memory is that Vanilla (or Mr. Ice?) said … Read more
Robert Indiana, 86 this year, is an American artist most well known for his iconic pop art LOVE sculptures. He’s less well-known for losing the copyright in his work by failing to properly register it. The artist, born Robert Clark, changed his last name to Indiana (his home state) when he moved to New York … Read more
A trademark is the legal term for what is commonly known as a brand. It is a word, phrase, symbol or design (or any combination of these) that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others. Examples of trademarks are FACEBOOK for social media services, MCDONALDS for restaurant … Read more
Copyright law protects the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. Copyright law does not protect facts or ideas. So the fact that “Toy Story 4 will be released by Disney in 2017″ can’t be owned by anyone. But an article reviewing the Toy Story franchise … Read more
I’ve compiled (and will periodically update) a list of on-line resources that you might find valuable if you want to educate yourself about trademark, copyright, publishing and related issues. Feel free to contact me with suggestions of additional resources to include. Trademark United States Patent and Trademark Office The Lanham Act (from LII at Cornell … Read more
