Alt Legal IP News – Issue #46
Hannah Samendinger | July 18, 2017
Alt Trademarks is back! Listen to our interview with Ryan Morrison of Morrison Lee. We talk video games and Reddit AMAs. Check out the episode here.
You Might Be In Trouble
– Blue Apron is not having a good week. After Amazon filed a trademark application for their own meal kit service, Blue Apron’s stock plummeted.
– As part of a FOIA suit against ICE, Rebecca Tushnet discovered something interesting: the NFL has instructed ICE to seize not only counterfeits but also parody products.
– Over 22,000 people agreed to a wifi company’s Terms of Service, including a provision requiring 1,000 hours of community service.
– The Game of Thrones characters should lawyer up.
Pricey Patents
– A British company received a patent for “cancer vaccines” technology, which they believe has the potential to be a permanent cure.
– An appeals court stuck the winner of the not-so-coveted “Stupid Patent of the Month” with $43,000 in legal fees.
– Another company, who has pursued at least 315 cases based on a shipping and tracking patent, was ordered to pay over $36,000 in legal fees.
– Fujifilm is being sued for infringement of mammogram technology.
Futuristic Filings
– Wrigley is not happy about “Dbl Mint” and “Joosy Fruit” e-cigarette liquids.
– The first “robot lawyer” is now available in all 50 states.
– Amazon Web Services dropped a controversial patent clause from their user agreement, while adding in language that protects users from patent suits targeting their technology.
Odds and Ends
– Did the State Dept. attempt to start a fake intellectual property Twitter feud?
– Nuns have received trademark protection for the design of Mother Theresa’s signature sari.
– The New York Times published a tragic but important read about a prominent IP attorney and his battle with addiction.
– National Ice Cream Day was this weekend. One of the earliest ice cream related trademark cases began in 1842.