Alt Legal IP News #109
Justin Wickersham | October 09, 2018
Popular with the Kids
– Toys “R” Us’s planned intellectual property auction garnered attention for some of its domain names up for sale. The auction has been called off in favor of reorganization.
– Soon your phone could be a Gameboy.
– Juul, the company behind the e-cigarette that is alarmingly popular with teens, filed a patent infringement lawsuit against 18 other e-cig makers. The company previously filed a lawsuit against 30 companies for trademark infringement.
At Odds
– In 1914, a man was granted a patent for technology credited with saving hundreds of lives during WWI. That patent has created more frustration than joy for his descendants.
– Jimmy Page and Robert Plant may not be off the hook for copyright infringement in “Stairway to Heaven” after all.
– A probate court dealing with James Brown’s estate is entangled in a “12-year fight over bigamy, DNA tests, and copyright law.”
Don’t Say That
– Vogue’s parent company is taking 26-year old designer and activist Nareasha Willis to court over her Black Vogue fashion line.
– The billionaire founder of easyJet is suing Netflix over the show “Easy,” claiming the name infringes his European trademark rights.
– MoMa won a preliminary injunction against MoMaCha in their ongoing trademark infringement lawsuit.
Odds and Ends
– Bumble is asking to have Tinder’s patents invalidated. Despite this ongoing dispute, the CEO of Match, which owns Tinder, says she admires Bumble.
– What happens when you purchase a painting for £1.042m and it self-destructs immediately after?
– A solo engineer stepped into the middle of the Waymo v. Uber battle, preparing a 101-page presentation that ultimately won the USPTO’s approval.
– A Cleveland Cavaliers’ guard has been notified that he may be fined for every game that he fails to cover up a new tattoo because of potential conflict with existing sponsorship agreements.