Alt Legal IP News – Issue #84
Hannah Samendinger | April 18, 2018
Check out our latest episode of Alt Trademarks. This episode features Lauren D. Shinn of WIPO. We discuss her role at WIPO and recent updates to the UDRP.
The Joys of Being a Woman
– A patent analysis conducted by Yale revealed that women are less likely to have their patent applications approved than men. The approval gap narrows when the patent examiner cannot readily determine gender from the inventor’s name.
– How could the examination process be improved to address this disparity?
– Victorian inventors once used fashion to protect women cyclists.
Music in My Head
– Coachella took place last weekend, flooding Instagram feeds with festival photos and sponsored content. While the festival promotes a laidback vibe, the organizers are notoriously aggressive in protecting their brand.
– Despite Coachella’s strict brand enforcement strategy, they may be more lenient towards Beychella.
– Spotify bought a “cover song” licensing firm to help address some copyright risks associated with their platform.
– A federal judge found that Wolfgang’s Vault, a streaming platform, committed massive copyright infringement by streaming live concert videos to their users.
Beers, Burgers, and Ice Cream
– In the ongoing “battle of the breweries,” MillerCoors has filed a counterclaim against Stone Brewing.
– The Museum of Ice Cream, a destination catering to the Instagram crowd, is seeking trademark protection for “the color light pink as applied to a building.”
– In-N-Out is suing an Australian burger company, Down N’ Out, for trademark infringement.
Odds and Ends
– Off-White, who uses a diagonal stripe logo, filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against individual sellers in an e-commerce marketplace.
– Despite the fact that the parties reached a settlement last year, the Ninth Circuit will now issue a ruling in the monkey selfie case.
– A New Hampshire judge ruled that the phrase “patent troll” is not “necessarily pejorative.”
– After a patent infringement dispute, Apple owes $502 million in damages to an internet security company.
– This isn’t news, but here is a great logo with a meaningful design.