copyright
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Guide to Due Diligence
Neil Wilkof at the IP Finance blog has a great post on due diligence on IP ownership. The post walks through the various ways that IP rights can be acquired and transferred, as well as modalities of default rules in different countries. Definitely something to keep in the file drawer, if not stuck on the… Continue reading
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Off-Topic
It’s off-topic, but I encourage everyone to go take a look atopensource.com, a web site launched today by my employer, Red Hat. It’s a place to talk about open source and the power of working openly and collaboratively. Come join the conversation. Continue reading
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Can NBC Own the Intangibles?
Law.com is reporting that Conan O’Brien will have to give up the intellectual property rights in the characters and recurring skits that he developed during his NBC career. It’s not all entirely clear who owns what and who’s giving up what. The New York Times reports NBC claims to be co-owner of Triumph the Insult… Continue reading
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15% of Sherlock Holmes Under Copyright
Last Sunday’s New York Times published an article about copyright ownership of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes character. The article is largely about the dispute between different parties who lay claim to the US copyright in the Sherlock Holmes stories. The general reaction is surprise that Sherlock Holmes can still be under copyright, but… Continue reading
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Bratz Stayed!!
I consider myself the unofficial recordkeeper for the Bratz litigation (so it was fate that the Secret Santa I pulled was for a Moxie Girlz), but I must have been sleeping on the job because everyone has jumped on this one before me. So playing catch-up to what’s already been reported by the IPKat, Techdirt,… Continue reading
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Copyright Infringement Masquarading as Ownership
The Tennessean, in an article entitled “‘Atomic Dog’ singer wins claim to phrase,” reports that “The phrase ‘bow wow wow, yippie yo, yippie yea’ belongs exclusively to funk legend George Clinton, a panel of federal judges ruled this week.” Well, no. The question was whether three musical elements – the use of the word “dog”… Continue reading
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Contract Interpretation Quiz
Interpret this contract, reproduced below in full: In consideration of the sum of One Dollar ($1.00) and other good, valuable, and adequate consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of which is acknowledged, the undersigned does hereby sell, assign, transfer, and set over to Bridgeport Music, Inc., its respective successors and assigns, fifty percent (50%) of his… Continue reading
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Pushing a Deal
Movie deals are made at the Sundance Film Festival, and they’re made fast. Weinstein Company v. Smokewood Entertainment Group gives us some of the flavor. The film was “Push,” now renamed “Precious.” (One blog suggests that it was done to avoid confusion with a cheesy sci-fi film of the same name.) Push won the Grand… Continue reading
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The Price of a Re-org
Some decisions just make me nervous. The Sixth Circuit decision in Cincom Systems, Inc. v. Novelis Corp. is one of them. Cincom Systems licenses software. In 1989 it licensed software to Alcan Rolled Products Division (Alcan Ohio), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alcan, Inc. The license was for use of the software on one computer in… Continue reading
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