Copyright birth & death announcementsBy Daniel KeganOctober 2002Copyright death approaches for older unpublished works. Pre-1978 works that did not receive copyright protection before 1978 may, unless the works are published before January 2003, become public domain.
ICANN Stockholm falloutBy Adria MorrisOctober 2002If anyone blinked in June 2001, they might have missed the cursory press coverage of the ICANN quarterly meeting in Stockholm. For anyone that is involved in the domain name industry, which many of us are, a few items deserve special attention.
Intellectual Improbabilities™By Daniel KeganOctober 2002The Official Gazette for Patents stopped paper publication September 25, 2002; electronic publication on CD-ROM began October 1, 2002.
Intellectual improbabilities™By Daniel KeganJune 2002Douglas Dorhauer, a student at Louisiana State University school of law maintains the lsulaw.com Web site.
Inventor rights: Chou v. The University of ChicagoBy Robert H. ResisApril 2002The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has recently ruled that a putative inventor who lacks a potential ownership interest in a patent still has standing to sue for correction of inventorship of the patent based on an alleged "concrete financial interest in the patent."
Is that boat really intended for this safe harbor?By David LoundyJanuary 2002One of the few parts of the "Communications Decency Act" (47 U.S.C. §230) left standing after the Supreme Court invalidated the statute's motivating provisions (see Reno v. ACLU, 117 S.Ct. 2329, 2334 (1997).)
ISBA advisory ethics opinions on WebJanuary 2002ISBA Advisory Opinions on Professional Conduct are posted and available on ISBA's Web site, <http://www.isba.org/EthicsOpinions/>.
ISBA Intellectual Property contentsOctober 2002Baron, Steven L. and Anne C. Brynn. "Another roadblock on the way to proving trade dress in product configuration: Traffix Devices, Inc. v. Marketing Displays, Inc."
The law of privacy: past, present and futureOctober 2002Studies indicate that 92 percent of consumers are concerned about the misuse of their personal information online, and that concern is estimated to result in potential losses of up to $20 billion by 2002.
Organic foods and labelsJanuary 2002Trademark counsel often review labels and packaging. The federal government has issued new rules defining what constitutes an organic food.
Property v. PrivacyBy David LoundyJune 2002An interesting exploration of the ability to monitor telephone records is found in Schmidt v. Ameritech Illinois, 2002 Ill.App. LEXIS 220 (Mar. 29, 2002).
Trademark Trial and Appeals Board issues first dilution decisionBy John E. LyhusApril 2002The Trademark Trial and Appeals Board of the United States Patent and Trademark Office has revealed the high barrier a trademark must surmount to be considered famous under the Federal Trademark Dilution Act (FTDA).
UCITA is coming! UCITA is coming! (One if by land, two if by C)By Eugene F. FriedmanApril 2002The Illinois General Assembly has recently witnessed the introduction of the Uniform Computer Information Transfer Act ("UCITA"), 1999 Illinois Senate Bill 1309.