Balough
January 30, 2024
(January 30, 2024) Unlike the “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” George Carlin never said nor preformed the comedy special “I’m Glad I’m Dead.” Those four words came from an artificial intelligence (“AI”) generated podcast on You Tube beginning in mid-January 2024. The hour-long fake George Carlin comedy special was created by […]
Balough
December 18, 2020
(December 18, 2020) An attempt to boldly go where no mash-up of Dr. Seuss and Star Trek had gone before was squashed by the Ninth Circuit. ComicMix LLC created a mash-up using the Star Trek characters and Dr. Seuss’s works Oh, the Places You’ll Go! (“Go!”), How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, and The Sneetches and […]
Balough
November 1, 2020
(November 1, 2020) Blog posts, social media posts, and short online articles may now be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office as a group. The rule was established to help daily bloggers and other authors who write and publish online a high volume of works. The new registration called Group Registration for Short Online Literary […]
Balough
August 14, 2020
(August 14, 2020) Apple Inc. thinks an image of a pear is ripe for a trademark opposition case. Super Healthy Kids, Inc. filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for registration of a design mark in the outline of a pear with a leaf attached for an online app for organizing and planning meals […]
Balough
July 1, 2020
(July 1, 2020) A generic name combined with “.com” may be trademarked, the United States Supreme Court says, rejecting the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) broad rule that combining a generic term with “.com” cannot be registered as a trademark. “Booking.com” sought to trademark the name of its website name, which is an online […]
Balough
May 27, 2020
(May 27, 2020) There’s no clowning around in the case to determine who wrote Cathy’s Clown, the Everly Brothers’ famous song. Don Everly maintains he is the sole author but Phil Everly’s estate says they were co-authors of the 1960 song. In granting summary judgment to Don, a district court agreed that Don is the […]
Balough
May 7, 2020
(May 7, 2020) Ready to spice up your online presentation with some music, a film clip, a cartoon, or a picture? Maybe you are a fitness coach conducting exercise classes online rather than at a gym and want some lively music to accompany your instruction? Before using that music, video, or other creative work, you […]
Balough
December 10, 2019
(December 10, 2019) Broke Ass Phone (“BAP”) will be able to put its registered federal trademark on its sign in Broadman, Ohio, following an appellate court reversal of a denial of its application for the sign because it contained an obscene word or word of immoral character. A zoning inspector for Broadman Township in Ohio […]
Balough
November 14, 2019
(November 14, 2019) A photographer cannot sue for copyright infringement when his image was partially used without permission in an online article that criticized a newspaper article using with permission the full image. The court found the subsequent partial use constituted was fair use. Stephen Yang took a picture of Dan Rochkind or an article […]
Balough
September 3, 2019
(September 3, 2019) The question of how artificial intelligence inventions may or should be patented has been put out for public comment by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). The USPTO has issued a request for comments on twelve questions to help the agency develop new rules or modify existing law with respect to […]
