Posts Tagged: "Second Circuit Court of Appeals"

District Court Denies Preliminary Injunction Requested Under Reverse Confusion Theory Following PepsiCo Ruling

In a case that echoes they key issue in a recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruling for PepsiCo, Inc., U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Lorna Schofield denied a brand owner’s request for a preliminary injunction enjoining model and influencer Hailey Rhode Bieber, who is also the spouse of superstar Justin Bieber, from selling products under the name “Rhode,” which is also her middle name.

‘Reasonable Efforts’ Require Care and Consistency

At this moment, there is a fellow riding a bus in London who will determine the fate of your secrets. To be more precise, he’s on the Clapham bus; but he has no name. In fact, he’s a fictional character originally imagined by 19th Century journalist Walter Bagehot, who thought that “public opinion” was best described as the “opinion of the bald-headed man at the back of the omnibus.” The idea was picked up by the English courts as a metaphor for the “reasonable person” standard that is applied in all sorts of cases, from criminal to personal injury to contract interpretation. It also has special application to trade secrets, which we’ll get to in a minute.

Social Media Influencers Beware – Street Art Is Protected by Copyright

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently confirmed that street art is, in fact, protected by copyright law.  Castillo v. G&M Realty L.P (Feb. 2020). But you wouldn’t know that from looking at Instagram. In recent years, the social media explosion has transformed “aerosol art” from a nuisance to a promotional tool. What used to be painted over the next morning, can now garner attention for a location and lead to flocks of social media junkies posing for and posting pics, leaving local shop owners hoping the foot traffic will increase sales. Many shop owners have gone so far as to commission works on their facades precisely with this in mind. The easiest way to lure in the Instagram-generation to your store is to have something unique that they can post in the hopes of adding followers. For many of these Kardashian wannabes, the goal is to build their “brand” so they can get sponsorship deals and rake in free goods and cash. A new sub-economy is exploding but, not surprisingly, few stop to consider the legal implications.

Other Barks & Bites, Friday, August 9: IP Litigation Getting More Expensive, WIPO Launches .CN Dispute Resolution Service

This week in Other Barks & Bites: WIPO launches dispute resolution service for Chinese domain names; Morrison Foerster report shows that IP litigation costs are increasing as the number of IP matters being handled are decreasing; the Federal Circuit issues precedential decisions upholding claim construction findings at the ITC and overturning a district court jury verdict finding invalidity for being unsupported by record evidence; the Second Circuit clarifies when profits can be awarded in trademark cases; Uber IP transfer creates $6.1 billion tax break for the company; major football associations call for crackdown on Saudi piracy service; OPPO inks patent agreements with Intel and Ericsson; and Broadcom acquires Symantec’s enterprise security business.

Supreme Court Denies TVEyes v. Fox News, Leaves Intact 2d Circuit Ruling on Market Harm of Transformative Uses

On December 3rd, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for writ of certiorari in TVEyes, Inc. v. Fox News Network, LLC, declining the opportunity to decide what would have been the Court’s first case on fair use in a copyright context in 20 years. Denying the petition, the Supreme Court declined to answer whether a transformative use of a copyrighted work causes a cognizable market harm under 17 U.S.C. § 107(4) if it is used in connection with a commercially successful business that the author is unlikely to enter or authorize.