Sat.Feb 12, 2022 - Fri.Feb 18, 2022

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Why it is Never the Right Time to Tackle Plagiarism

Plagiarism Today

Yesterday, Alice Nuttall published a piece on Book Riot that asks a simple question: Why is publishing plagiarism still possible? It’s a simple enough question. In an age with plagiarism-detection software widely available, heightened awareness about the issue and a seemingly-regular pattern of plagiarism scandals impacting publishers, why are so few working to prevent the problem in advance?

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Copyrighting the Ogopogo: The © Story Behind the News Story?

Hugh Stephens Blog

The headline in the local paper grabbed my attention. “City of Vernon transfers copyright to legendary Ogopogo to B.C. Indigenous nations”. It went on to say that “The legal rights to the legendary creature in a British Columbia lake have been transferred to an alliance of Indigenous nations who say the Ogopogo has always been … Continue reading "Copyrighting the Ogopogo: The © Story Behind the News Story?

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What Happens When Appealing a Trademark Refusal to the TTAB

Erik K Pelton

The following is an edited transcript of my video What Happens When Appealing a Trademark Refusal to the TTAB. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, or TTAB, is a panel of judges that can decide cases on appeal. They also can decide certain types of disputes, oppositions or cancellations, but we’re going to talk about appeals. Every year there are several hundred–maybe even several thousand–appeals filed before the trademark trial and appeal board.

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US Copyright Office refuses to register AI-generated work, finding that "human authorship is a prerequisite to copyright protection"

The IPKat

Can a work entirely created by a machine be protected by copyright? On Valentine’s Day, the US Copyright Office (Review Board) answered this question with a heartbreaking ‘no’, holding that “copyright law only protects “the fruits of intellectual labor” that “are founded in the creative powers of the [human] mind”” and consequently refusing to register the two-dimensional artwork 'A Recent Entrance to Paradise' below (the ‘Work’): Creativity Machine's A Recent Entrance to Paradise Background In

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Software Composition Analysis: The New Armor for Your Cybersecurity

Speaker: Blackberry, OSS Consultants, & Revenera

Software is complex, which makes threats to the software supply chain more real every day. 64% of organizations have been impacted by a software supply chain attack and 60% of data breaches are due to unpatched software vulnerabilities. In the U.S. alone, cyber losses totaled $10.3 billion in 2022. All of these stats beg the question, “Do you know what’s in your software?

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3 Count: Guitars, Cadillacs and Settlement

Plagiarism Today

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday. 1: Warner Music, Country Star Dwight Yoakam Settle Copyrights Dispute. First off today, Blake Brittain at Reuters reports that country music singer Dwight Yoakam has reached a settlement with Warner Music Group (WMG) that puts an end to their copyright termination battle.

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Apple Defeats Copyright Lawsuit Over Emoji Depictions–Cub Club v. Apple

Technology & Marketing Law Blog

The court summarizes the case: Cub Club Investment created an app that allowed people to send racially diverse emoji. According to the complaint, when Apple learned of the app, it liked the idea—so much so, in fact, that it copied it. These screenshots (from the complaint) show the alleged copying: I trust the differences are immediately apparent. Both emoji sets obviously riff on the same theme, but that type of overlap is impossible to avoid in the emoji context.

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More Trending

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Cool idea, But No Patent

Patently-O

by Dennis Crouch. Gabara v. Facebook, Inc. (Supreme Court 2022). Thad Gabara is a former Bell Labs engineer and is a prolific inventor with 100+ patents in his name. Along the way, Gabara also became a patent agent and personally prosecuted many of his recent patents, including the Sliding Window patents asserted here. U.S. Patent Nos. 8,930,131; 8,620,545; 8,836,698; 8,706,400 ; and 9,299,348.

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Cent NFT Marketplace Halts Sales, Cites Plagiarism

Plagiarism Today

Last week, we discussed the coming intellectual property storm for NFTs. In short, we looked at how the various copyright and trademark issues of NFTs have begun to attract the attention of creators and rightsholders, large and small, setting the stage for a wave of litigation. However, over the last weekend, it appears the next shoe has already dropped.

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Pirated Oscar Screeners Have Become a Rare Breed

TorrentFreak

The Oscars are the most anticipated movie awards show of the year, closely followed by hundreds of millions of movie fans around the world. It’s also a special event for movie pirates. Traditionally, the Oscar winners see a surge in unauthorized downloads. And in anticipation of the big day, pirated copies of award-screeners would often leak early.

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USPTO Analysis of Patent Filings Finds No Single Company is Leading 5G Technology Development

IP Watchdog

Earlier this week, the USPTO released a report canvassing the current state of 5G technology attempting to “attain an informed understanding of the global competitiveness and economic vulnerabilities of United States 5G manufacturers and suppliers.” At the outset, the report noted that many other studies have been done to identify market leaders but have come to differing conclusions.

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IPO Diversity in Innovation Toolkit

Women and diverse employees have the technical skill and knowledge, yet their contributions are not patented at the same rate as those of their male counterparts.This toolkit can help organizations move the needle on achieving gender parity in innovation.

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Georgia Supreme Court Blesses Google’s Keyword Ad Sales–Edible IP v. Google

Technology & Marketing Law Blog

Edible Arrangements objected to Google selling its trademark to trigger keyword ads. They filed a trademark lawsuit in 2018 but abandoned the suit when it got sent to arbitration. However, they didn’t give up! The Edible team had the brilliant idea of suing Google for “theft of personal property” and “conversion,” where the stolen/converted asset was the trademark.

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3 Count: Bowser’s Finale

Plagiarism Today

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday. 1: Xecutor Video Game Piracy Group Member Gets 3-Year Sentence. First off today, The Associated Press reports that Gary Bowser, a man who pleaded guilty to his role in the Team Xecutor piracy group, has been sentenced to forty months in prison. Bowser, who lived in Dominican Republic, was arrested in September 2020 and deported to the United States to face charges.

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Police Arrest Man For Uploading ‘Parasite’ Movie Edit to YouTube

TorrentFreak

When fans want to get a brief idea of the nature and plotline of a movie they intend to watch, they often do so view studio-released trailers. Some purists believe that even these can give away too much but in Japan some fans are going even further. So-called ‘Fast Movies’ have been in existence for some time. These videos are often around 10 minutes in length but rather than giving a flavor of a movie to whet the appetite, they are designed to give away entire plotlines and necessar

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Publishers Win Preliminary Injunction Against Maryland Law that Requires Licensing Digital Works to Libraries

IP Watchdog

Publishers scored a win yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland when the court granted their request for a preliminary injunction enjoining enforcement of the Maryland Act, which essentially calls for compulsory licensing of electronic literary works to libraries on “reasonable terms”. The law went into effect on January 1, 2022.

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[Guest post] What do a (little) mermaid and a non-statutory caricature/parody exception share? A tale from Denmark

The IPKat

The IPKat is pleased to host the guest contribution below by Katfriends Jakob Plesner Mathiasen , Hanne Kirk , and Philip Henszelman (all Gorrissen Federspiel) on a recent Danish decision tackling issues relating to copyright protection, non-statutory exceptions for parody/caricature, and freedom of expression. Here's what they write: What do a (little) mermaid and a non-statutory caricature/parody exception share?

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3 Count: Apple Emoji Victory

Plagiarism Today

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday. 1: Apple Defeats Copyright Lawsuit Over Racially Diverse Emoji. First off today, Blake Brittain at Reuters reports that Apple has emerged victorious in a lawsuit filed against them over racially diverse Emoji that were included in various Apple products. The lawsuit was filed by Club Club LLC on behalf of its founder, Katrina Parrott.

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US Govt Identifies Top Pirate Sites and Other ‘Notorious Markets’

TorrentFreak

In its yearly “Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets”, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) lists a few dozen websites said to be involved in piracy or counterfeiting. The overview is largely based on input from copyright industry groups, including the RIAA and MPA, that submitted their recommendations late last year. According to USTR, the annual overview aims to motivate the private sector and foreign governments to reduce piracy.

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Biden Administration Should Recommend Clarifying Patent Eligibility Law in American Axle

IP Watchdog

Nine months in, and we are still awaiting the Biden administration’s decision as to whether the law of patent eligibility should be clarified. This area of patent law has in recent years become increasingly unpredictable, and the consequences of that unpredictability have largely fallen on startups, whose primary assets are often inventions. On May 3, 2021, the Supreme Court invited the Solicitor General to recommend whether certiorari should be granted in American Axle v.

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The 12-Year Patent

Patently-O

by Dennis Crouch. A patent costs money; and the costs continue even after issuance. The U.S. requires a set of three “maintenance fees” to keep a utility patent in force for its entire 20 year patent term. These are due 3.5, 7.5, and 11.5 years after issuance, but the PTO allows for a 6-month grace period for payment. The chart below looks at the percentage of utility patents where the fees were paid prior to abandonment.

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Plagiarism in Letters to the Editor

Plagiarism Today

The Berkshire Eagle is a relatively small newspaper that is published out of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Like many such publications, it hosts a “Letters to the Editor” section where readers can submit their own opinion pieces to the paper. However, a letter that was published earlier today by Paul D. Nugent is definitely unusual for both the paper, and newspapers in general.

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MPA, Amazon & Apple Win Injunction To Shut Down Two Pirate IPTV Services

TorrentFreak

In December 2021, movie and TV giants Universal, Disney, Paramount, Warner and Columbia joined Netflix, Amazon, Apple and several other studios in a copyright infringement lawsuit against Texas resident Dwayne Anthony Johnson. The plaintiffs alleged that Johnson (and Does 1-20) are the brains behind pirate IPTV providers AllAccessTV (AATV) and Quality Restreams.

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The Future is Funding? Women Receive Just 2% From a Big VC Funding Year

IPilogue

Photo by Mohamed Hassan ( Pixabay ). Meena Alnajar is an IPilogue Writer, IP Innovation Clinic Fellow, and a 2L JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. 2021 was a big year for innovation and small businesses—venture capital (“VC”) funding reached an all-time high with 83% higher funding in the US than the total raised in 2020. Venture capitalists are investors who provide funds to small businesses and start-ups that exhibit exceptional growth potential based on market studies.

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Other Barks & Bites for Friday, February 18: Georgia Supreme Court Affirms Dismissal of Keyword Theft Claims, Eleventh Circuit Reverses Trade Secret Claim Dismissal and EUIPO Reports 200,000 Trademark Applications Filed in 2021

IP Watchdog

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Fifth Circuit affirmed Texas A&M’s sovereign immunity win over “12th Man” copyright claims; the EUIPO reported that 2021 ended with more than 200,000 EU trademark applications filed at the agency; DoorDash reported that it received a record number of consumer delivery orders during the fourth quarter of 2021; the Eleventh Circuit reversed a district court’s dismissal of trade secret claims after finding that it improperly applied Alabama state law

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3 Count: Updated Updates

Plagiarism Today

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday. 1: Local YouTube Star Pleads Guilty in Large-Scale Cable Piracy Case. First off today, Jeremy Roebuck at The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that YouTuber Bill Omar Carrasquillo has pleaded guilty to various crimes including copyright infringement, tax evasion and fraud. Carrasquillo, better known by his YouTube name Omi in a Hellcat, became famous for his videos about his extreme wealth.

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Supreme Court Rejects Appeal of Sports Streaming Site Rojadirecta

TorrentFreak

Founded more than 16 years ago, Rojadirecta is one of the oldest and most popular linking sites for sports streaming events. The site, which is operated by the Spanish company Puerto 80 Projects, has built a loyal user base over the years. At the same time, it has fought quite a few legal battles too. The Spanish site famously challenged a domain seizure by the U.S.

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Podcast: Talking with Helienne Lindvall Because Streaming is Still Broken

The Illusion of More

Neil Young pulls his music from Spotify to protest the content on Joe Rogan’s podcast, and Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills, and Nash follow suit. It’s a big story for a week, and some noise about “cancel culture” and Rogan himself lingers, but we’ve mostly moved on. Meanwhile, the economic model for music streaming is […].

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Patent Filings Roundup: Qualcomm Dragged into Waco by Magentar on IoT Chips; Board Skips Merits in Denial

IP Watchdog

Happy belated Valentine’s Day; there were 74 district court terminations last week (mostly file-and-settle flotsam); 36 Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) filings (bolsted by Qualcomm indemnification filings and some medical device action); and 56 district court patent filings this week, in a mid-month lull before certain entities have to hit their end-of-month quota; let’s get to it.

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Should I File Trademark Applications to Cover My Brands in the NFT/Metaverse/Virtual Worlds Space?

JD Supra Law

Trademark filings in the metaverse and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) space are a hot topic these days in the media and IP Bar, and many brand owners are asking themselves whether it’s time to join in or risk being left behind. As more consumers turn to online activities during the pandemic and technology continues to advance - allowing for more online collaboration and engagement in virtual reality meeting places - the question of whether and how a business can affirmatively protect its marks in.

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One World, One Patent: The Unified Patent Court Becomes a Reality!

IPilogue

Photo by Chris Brignola ( Unsplash ). Pankhuri Malik is an IPilogue Writer and an LLM Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. . The IPilogue reported in September 2021 that with Germany’s ratification of the Protocol on Provisional Application of the Unified Patent Court Agreement (“Agreement”) , the Unified Patent Court (“UPC”) may become a reality by 2022.

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Google Should Ban Pirate Sites, Say Authors John Grisham & Scott Turow

TorrentFreak

In 2020, Amazon teamed up with publisher Penguin Random House and authors including John Grisham, Scott Turow and Lee Child to sue several pirate ‘Kiss Library’ eBook sites operating out of Ukraine. Curious as to how such a lawsuit might progress, we monitored every filing in the case. Over time it became extremely clear that the plaintiffs were going to have to work extraordinarily hard to get the matter to trial, let alone recover anything from the elusive defendants.

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CAFC Affirms District Court Finding that Dual-Access Lock Patents are Invalid Under 101

IP Watchdog

On February 14, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) affirmed the Eastern District of New York’s grant of summary judgment that inventor David Tropp’s patents were invalid because they claim ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The appeal was brought by Tropp against Travel Sentry, Inc. and other lock and luggage makers.

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Nike Tries to Stomp Out StockX’s Attempt to Sell NFTs of Nike Sneakers

JD Supra Law

In what could be one of the biggest NFT cases to arise so far, Nike has sued resale marketplace StockX for trademark infringement in the Southern District of New York, claiming that StockX is selling NFTs that display Nike’s trademarks without Nike’s permission. In the Complaint, Nike alleges that StockX has infringed nine of its sneaker designs to create a line of NFTs that are part of its collection that StockX has branded the “Vault.”.

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How IP Waivers Can Help Manage the Omicron Strain

IPilogue

Photo by Bra?o ( Unsplash ). Shannon Flynn is a Guest Writer and the Managing Editor of ReHack Magazine. Over two years have passed since the SARS-CoV-2 virus, better known today as COVID-19, made its first appearance in the city of Wuhan, China. In those two years, the virus has circled the globe, killing more than five million people as of December 2021 —a number that has climbed with the spread of the new, highly transmissible Omicron variant.

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Ukraine to voluntarily implement Art. 17 of the Copyright DSM Directive

The IPKat

While certain EU Member States are still to transpose Directive (EU) 2019/790 (Copyright DSM Directive), Ukraine, a non-EU country, has decided to implement certain provisions from the Directive. This includes Art. 17 of the Copyright DSM Directive on uses of copyright-protected content by certain internet platforms (the so-called “online content-sharing services providers”, OCSSPs).

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California Appellate Court Rejects Poorly Executed “Sign-In Wrap”–Sellers v. JustAnswer (Guest Blog Post)

Technology & Marketing Law Blog

By guest blogger Kieran McCarthy. Contracts are a state-law issue. And online contracts, even though they exist in the friction-less, boundary-less world of the internet, are also generally governed by state-law principles. Which is why it is perhaps odd that the law of online contracts is such an echo chamber of federal court opinions interpreting other federal court opinions.

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