http://www.godfreadlaw.com Fri, 30 Jul 2010 20:03:28 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The Librarian of Congress has recommended new exemptions from the prohibition on circumventing digital copy protections including one exemption for "jailbreaking" phones so that you can install your own software. Another sign that perhaps section 1201 might not be as broadly applied going forward is this recent decision from ... http://www.godfreadlaw.com/index.php/2010/digital-locks-loosening "Mark Twain famously said that a lie can go around the world while truth is still putting on its boots." MinnPost has a great article with lessons businesses can learn from the Shirley Sherrod story. Cooler heads and actual evidence should have prevailed in the first place. http://www.godfreadlaw.com/index.php/2010/dont-let-your-business-decisions-be-clouded-by-rumors I have a new podcast over at Tech{dot}MN. I interviewed Ray Bonnabeau of Hellmuth & Johnson about what software companies need to think about to make sure they truly own the software code the are using and creating. Ray is a really smart guy and the topic is ... http://www.godfreadlaw.com/index.php/2010/copyright-law-and-ownership-of-software When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, ... http://www.godfreadlaw.com/index.php/2010/happy-independence-day A short article I wrote summarizing the Costco v. Omega case was published in the Minnesota Intellectual Property Law Association's New Matter™ Newsletter. The case is about the "first sale" doctrine in copyright law and specifically, whether goods manufactured and sold abroad can be imported into the United States ... http://www.godfreadlaw.com/index.php/2010/summary-of-costco-v-omega-in-mipla-newsletter A group called the U.S. Copyright Group (USCG) has filed a lawsuit against thousands of as yet unknown people who may (or may not) have downloaded or uploaded movies on file sharing networks. The strategy, which has been employed by others in the past, is to file or ... http://www.godfreadlaw.com/index.php/2010/why-i-volunteered-for-the-eff One of the several reasons your trademark might be refused registration by the USPTO is that your proposed mark is scandalous or immoral. Without too much further explanation you might guess that a certain word starting with "F" and rhyming with "duck" might be problematic as a trademark. ... http://www.godfreadlaw.com/index.php/2010/f-trademarks The fictional high school chorus at the center of Fox’s Glee has a huge problem — nearly a million dollars in potential legal liability. For a show that regularly tackles thorny issues like teen pregnancy and alcohol abuse, it’s surprising that a million dollars worth of lawbreaking would go unmentioned. ... http://www.godfreadlaw.com/index.php/2010/but-they-did-it-on-tv-what-glee-teaches-about-copyright The Twitter account @BPGlobalPR has more followers than the real BP Twitter account. Yes its fake and they use the BP name and logo. The tweets are both biting and funny, at least to people who don't work at BP. But is it trademark infringement? If trademark ... http://www.godfreadlaw.com/index.php/2010/trademarks-and-oil-spils There is a vague popular belief that lawyers are necessarily dishonest. I say vague, because when we consider to what extent confidence and honors are reposed in and conferred upon lawyers by the people, it appears improbable that their impression of dishonesty is very distinct and vivid. Yet the impression ... http://www.godfreadlaw.com/index.php/2010/lincoln-on-lawyers-and-honesty