Year / 2014
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Trademark Registrations An Even Better Value After USPTO Fee Drop
In a curious instance of federal government generosity, the USPTO has approved drops in registration fees for TEAS and TEAS Plus trademark applications from $325 and $275 per class to $275 and…
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Use of #SkinnyPuppy Music During #Torture Raises Interesting #Copyright Question
The industrial band Skinny Puppy sent the Department of Defense a bill in the amount of $666,666 for using its music during alleged acts of torture. Besides the obvious questions about whether use…
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Bad Moon on the Rise for Fogerty in Lawsuit over Band Name
John Fogerty’s former bandmates have filed a suit for trademark infringement and related breach of contract claims over Fogerty’s use of the registered mark “Creedence Clearwater Revival.” A settlement agreement reached in…
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The Empire Fights Back? BMG Sues Cox for Lax Infringement Protocols
I very rarely line up on the side of corporate behemoths, especially those who pay artists pennies on the dollar for the soul and sweat that goes into their music, but in…
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Sirius XM Backed into a Corner in Copyright Infringement Case
Like the old adage attributed to the tortoise-“slow and steady wins the race”-the Turtles scored another victory in their copyright infringement case against Sirius XM. Judge Gutierrez in California’s Central District, site…
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In Davids vs. Trademark Goliaths the Davids Seem to be Winning
In recent weeks a series of unrelated trademarks cases have come to the forefront in the news that should give small businesses (i.e., non-corporate behemoths) a reason to smile. In each of…
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Guest Trademark Post on the ceb.com Blog
Just a heads up, I have a guest post on the California Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB) blog today on the attempted pizza trademark case in Texas-check it out! Public Domain…
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Photo Infringement Case Instructs on Fair Use, Web Dev Contracts
A decision in a recent copyright infringement case in the Northern District of California shows that cries of fair use may fall on deaf ears if there is no discernable transformative use…
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The Beastie Boys’ Greatest Legal Hits
The Beastie Boys need no introduction: seminal hip-hop artists from the birthplace of hip-hop who later morphed into genre-bending icons fusing sometimes disparate influences and sonic elements into a cohesive positive musical…
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Get Real Paid: Remedies in the Turtles-Sirius Copyright Infringement Case
Last week’s ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in the Flo & Eddie Inc. v. Sirius XM Radio Inc. case has sent shockwaves through the music…
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Another Case to Add to the Beasties’ Greatest Legal Hits
A couple of weeks ago I made my splash into the blogosphere by announcing my intention, among other things, to write a post entitled “Beastie Boys: Greatest Legal Hits.” Now in light of the news just…
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Calm Before the Copyright Storm: Thoughts on the Garcia v. Google Case
While we wait to see if the Ninth Circuit will revisit its decision in Garcia v. Google en banc regarding whether the plaintiff’s performance in the movie “Innocence of Muslims” is an independently copyrightable work,…
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From Beasties & Bikram to Sunglasses: CVL’s Inaugural Blog Post
Welcome to the inaugural blog post for Creative Vision Legal! I am Mike Thomas, and I’d like to use this post to lay out my vision of the kinds of topics I…
