Some Free Legal Advice: Why You Should Register Your Copyrights and Trademarks (2011)

The failure to register copyrights and trademarks is the very definition of penny-wise and pound foolish. Many clients leave many law offices frustrated, particularly in copyright matters, because despite the apparent validity of their claims, they just cannot afford to enforce their rights if they neglected to register their creative works. The irony of this
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Marilyn Monroe: Trade Dress From Whole Cloth? (2007)

Ideas and concepts, other than those that are not obvious and may be subject to patent protection, are generally freely available to all.  Trademark protection usually extends only to the owner’s use of a particular mark, including any logo or image. Yet a judge in the Northern District of California held recently that a trade dress owner
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Copyright Record Rental Exception Applies Only To Musical Works (2007)

In a recent case of first impression, the Sixth Circuit decided in Brilliance Audio, Inc. v. Haights Cross Communications, Inc., No. 05-1209 (6th Cir. 2007) that the record rental exception to the first sale doctrine, in section 109 of the Copyright Act, applies only to sound recordings of musical works. The decision is also interesting for its
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Bad Grammar = Good Trademark? (2006)

A mark is merely descriptive if it conveys any aspect, purpose, function or use, or desirable characteristic of the goods or services with which it is used. For example, the mark MARTHA WASHINGTON for dolls is merely descriptive of dolls that portray Martha Washington; likewise, the mark APPLE PIE for potpourri with an apple pie
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