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Who Owns Your Website (Now available in Chinese)
2008-02-29 17:43:00
My last Who Owns Your Website post was very well received. The jist of that post was that unless your website was created by your employee in the course of employment OR you obtained a written assignment of all rights in the website, you probably do not own your website. That post covered those parts of your website that you honestly thought you owned, but as it turns out, you do not. This post covers things you probably knew you did not own, but thought you could use without getting caught. Here are the excuses I hear when people get sued for infringing someone else's website design. I thought it was okay because:They Gave Me an InchYou paid a designer for work on a website. Now you want to replicate that design across several websites, and possibly even license it to others. Although you paid the designer for the work, you do not own the work. You merely have an implied license to use the work for its intended purpose. Whether that "purpose" includes use in other projec...
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Blawg Review #148
2008-02-27 22:54:00
Last week’s superb Blawg Review #147 by the world’s foremost authority on North American badger law left me rather intimidated. Realizing the challenge of following my good friend Rushwith a post of similar caliber, I nearly threw in the towel and moved to French Polynesia. Fortunately, Rush talked me down from the precipice and convince me to give it a try.While considering a theme for this week’s Blawg Review, it struck me that lawyers do not spend as much time aimlessly meandering the web as would, for instance, a typical air traffic controller. As a result, most lawyers are woefully detached from the Zeitgeist embodied in the lowly Internet meme. An Internet meme is any amusing video, email, picture, audio clip or other material that spreads virally across the internet. Unlike computer viruses, which spread based upon how many paint chips the people opening them consumed in their youth, Internet memes spread based upon how entertaining viewers find them.Although blawgers a...

Blawg Review at BlawgIT
2008-02-25 19:24:00
My Blawg Review #148 is now up over at the new BlawgIT.com website. If you don't check it out, you will have no one but yourself to blame the next time you get into a legal dispute with your badger.Brett Trout

BlawgIT Making a Move
2008-02-21 17:36:00
After five years and over five hundred posts I have finally decided to move BlawgIT to its own domain. It is even getting its own WordPress blog. I would like to give a big thanks to Christian Connett of eSolutions Interactive for moving all of my archival posts over to the new site.While I will continue to update both blogs for a while, I will begin posting blog posts to this site later and later. So, if you want the freshest dose of BlawgIT, hop over to www.BlawgIT.com Don't forget to update your RSS feeds, and don't forget to check back in on Monday, when I pillory Rush in next week's Blawg Review.Brett Trout
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Copyright Guru Seeks to Change Congress
2008-02-21 03:28:00
I do not write about politics, because this is not a political blog. It is a blog about intellectual property. As someone deeply concerned about intellectual property, however, I thought you would be interested to know that the most famous copyright attorney on earth is considering a bid for Congress . While reasonable minds may differ on so many political issues, one issue upon which we can all agree is the corruption in Congress has gotten out of hand. The petty differences, even between the major political parties, pale in comparison to the problem of Congressional corruption. Congress takes lots and lots of money from the very entities it is charged with regulating. Not good.You may have already heard of copyright guru Lawrence Lessig. Lessig is the founder and CEO of Creative Commons and board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Now the Stanford Law School professor, no longer quixotically tilting Microsoft’s antitrust windmill, is taking aim at corrupt politicians....
More About: Change , Copyright , Guru

Rush Hosts Blawg Review
2008-02-21 03:27:00
My buddy, and fellow I-Blawg Lawyer Rush Nigut is this week's Blawg Review host. Rush makes the most of his Blawg Review #147 pedestal by pedaling his way across memories of Iowa's own RAGBRAI.Although I am a RAGBRAI virgin myself, I have friends who have gone. Based upon their assessment, it appears Rush may have gone to bed a little early, missing a few things on his RAGBRAI trip. Despite being a veteran, he completely overlooked several notable aspects of the RAGBRAI experience:The lush, tropical beer gardensgroup car wash showersnaked beer slidesdrafting the Iowa Bikini TeamSharing sleeping bags to stay warm in the nearly 110 degree weatherroadside burritto rentals andKYBO return slots.Perhaps everyone was just on their best behavior for Lance Armstrong.
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I-Blawg: Iowa Law Blogs
2008-02-18 15:46:00
For some reason, Iowa is quite a fecund environment for blogging. Just a peek some of the blogs on the I-List gives you an indication of how offline collaboration between Iowa bloggers leads to a significant increase in online readership and quality. That same offline collaboration has now expanded to Iowa law bloggers as well.Back in 2003, I was the only law blogger in the state. Since that time, several high quality legal blogs have come upon the scene. Now there are at least ten legal blogs in just the Des Moines area alone. Although most are self explanatory, here is a link an short description of some of the most insightful I-Blawgs:BlawgIT (Hey, I am no dummy. I learned my alphabetization lesson standing at the back of lines all my life)Des Moines Injury Board Steve Lombardi shares in-depth insight on all things Personal Injury and Workers' Compensation.George Davison Iowa Law My former mentor and radio personality George Davison waxes philosophic on legalese and recent Iowa ...
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Buy That Domain Name First
2008-02-15 23:18:00
Part of my job is registering trademarks for companies. I always find it surprising that even internet savvy companies proceed with trademark registration before investigating domain name availability.While registering a domain name is not a prerequisite to filing a trademark registration, once you file the publicly available trademark registration, domain namenappers will likely foreclose that option, absent a rather large "donation" to their International Me, Me, Me Charity. If you get to the domain name even seconds after someone perusing recent trademark applications, the cost of your $9 domain name registration can jump to $10,000 or more.Even if you are unsure about which name you eventually want to protect, with trademark registrations running about $1,300 and domain name registration running about $9 a pop, it is worth grabbing ALL of the domain names under serious consideration.One last caveat. With some domain name registrars betraying long-term trust for short term profit...
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A Particularly Inventive Blawg Review
2008-02-12 15:58:00
Stephen Nipper of The Invent Blog chose February 11, 2008, National Inventor's Day and birthday of Thomas Alva Edison, to host this week's Blawg Review #146. Like all of Stephen's posts, his Blawg Review is concise and well-written. Best of all, and not surprisingly, his Blawg Review leans a little toward the inventive, highlighting blog posts on patent attorneys, the much maligned proposed patent reform and the Patent Office's proposal to have patent attorneys do their own preliminary examinations (don't worry, it will only add another $26,000 onto your bill). From Bobby Knight to BrideZilla, this week's Blawg Review has something for everyone. And don't forget new week, when Iowa's very own Rush On Business will be hosting. Be sure to visit, but be gentle. It is his first time.Brett Trout

It's Hard Out Here for a Patentee
2008-02-07 21:20:00
The Storm No One ForecastWhen it comes to undermining innovation in the United States, it appears we are currently in the midst of the perfect storm. It all started in the late nineties and early naughts when patent trolls began to run rampant. Much to the chagrin of American innovators, the government overreacted, stifling innovation on nearly every front. Winds of ChangeThe storm has been brewing since June 23, 1998, when the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in that you could patent a method of doing business. This ruling led to inventors falling all over themselves trying to file patents on "novel" online business methods. A Storm a BrewinThe problem was that, prior to 1998, no business method patents had ever been allowed. Up until that time, checking patent applications against previously issued patents was the United States Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) principal way to determine if a particular invention was truly novel. When these new business method ...
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Patent Blog Feeds - OPML Code
2008-02-06 21:07:00
The patent blog p-meme was a big hit yesterday. So much so, that people wanted MORE. Well baby, there ain't no more. What I can do however, is to give you my OPML file for all of the p-meme RSS feeds. Just import this file into your RSS reader to see all the same feeds I do (well, at least all the same patent blog feeds I do).To view the file, simply click on the ginormous blue button below: Alternatively, if clicking on huge blue buttons is not your thing, here is the OPML file itself. You can either copy and save it to a file you import into your RSS feedreader OR painstakingly cut and paste your way through it:<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><opml version="1.1"><head><title> ;Patent Blog s</title></head><body& gt;<outline title="Blawg IT Patent Blogs" text="Blawg IT Patent Blogs" htmlUrl="http://blog.bretttrout.com/" type="rss" xmlUrl="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Blawg It-internetPatentTrademarkAndCopyrightIss uesWithAttorneyBrettTrout" ...
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The Patent Meme
2008-02-05 17:23:00
When I first started writing my patent law blog in 2003, there were maybe only one or two other blogs writing about patents. I know, it sounds crazy. Patent attorneys are the epitome of sex appeal. There had to thousands of bloggers fawning over patents and the like. I still have not figured it out. Thankfully, five years and five hundred posts later, hundreds of blogs are covering patents and various patent related issues. Many have come, many have gone. There are lots of blogrolls out there, but almost all include non-patent related blogs or patent blogs which have not been updated for months. So thinking the same thing you are obviously thinking, "If only I could have a link to all the important patent law blogs in one place" I started compiling a list of patent law blogs. Admittedly, I do not get out much. Well, fellow fans of all things Josh Weaton, the list is complete. What follows is my definitive patent meme. Definitive, of course until you kindly instruct me in colorful ex...
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What Could Be More Generic Than CyberLaw?
2008-02-01 00:10:00
At least I thought it was when I used it as the title of my book. I do not feel too bad though, as a quick Google search shows that at least 356,000 others apparently have my back on this. The problem lies with one Eric J. Menhart, a Washington D.C. attorney, who apparently believes he is the only one allowed to use the generic term cyberlaw in association with "providing information relating to legal affairs." On the upside, Mr. Menhart appears to stand alone in this belief. Such uniqueness is actually quite amazing in this day and age, especially when you consider people have little difficulty mustering multitudes to support theories of a flat earth, galactic overpopulation, the profitability of multilevel marketing and even that George Lopez is funny.In furtherance of his quest for CyberLaw domination, Mr. Menhart has filed a federal trademark application to obtain exclusive rights in the term "CyberLaw" as used in association with all things legal. Well, not ALL things legal, ju...
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Great Blawg Reviews
2008-01-31 17:14:00
For those of you still just discovering Google for the first time, Blawg Review is a traveling synopsis of all that has gone on in the world of law blogging during the immediately preceding week. Law bloggers take turns hosting Blawg Review on their own law blogs to ensure consistently fresh insight. Often the reviews are quite good; sometimes they are terrific. This week is one of those times. Cyberlaw Central is hosting a Hobbit-themed Blawg Review, complete with spectacular artwork. As I not only have cybergeek friends, but many vertically challenged friends as well, I thought this particularly well written post would be of great interest to my readers. In addition to posting some incredible Hobbit related artwork, author Kevin Thompson also discusses the controversy surrounding one attorney's misguided attempt to trademark the generic term CyberLaw for his exclusive use. Like me, Kevin has a personal interest in the matter: I aim to monitor the situation for my own personal rea...
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Companies Waking Up to the Evils of Patent Reform
2008-01-30 21:20:00
Before it's too lateLike Net Neutrality, Patent Reform is an issue flying under the radar screens of most companies. Unfortunately, as with Net Neutrality, by the time these companies realize there is a problem, it will likely be too late to take action. What is patent reform?Patent reform actually refers to a very specific type of reform. The type of patent reform currently under discussion involves federal legislation which undermines the ability of inventors to obtain and enforce patents. It seem strange that such legislation would find any support at all, especially when you consider patent protection was a Constitutional right long before the Constitution ever protected the freedom of speech, the right to bear arms or even the right to due process under the law. So who is behind undermining the innovation this country was built on and our forefathers sought to protect above so many other valuable rights?Why is patent reform inherently evil?The Patent Reform Act is designed st...
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Who Surfs This Much Porn?
2008-01-29 16:02:00
Last week, the District of Columbia fired nine government employees for clicking the mouse over 2,000 times apiece on internet porn. Not content with merely firing their staff, the district is set to discipline an additional 32 employees for surfing porn on the taxpayer's dime. According to examiner.com, the worst offender, took an eyeful an average of every 2.5 minutes. The district uncovered the activity using porn-tracking software in combinatioin with a little hard drive forensics. The district plans to give itself a helping hand in the future by purchasing another 20,000 WebSense licenses at a cost of over $140,000. With systemic in-house porn surfing, it is best to work things out in advance. Have your information technology guru adjust his or her antenna to periodically look for any such activity. Then you may nip the bud before things get out of hand. It is important to apply the handbrake before a problem arises by incorporating unequivocal policies against such activity i...

United States Now a Haven For Cyberstalking
2008-01-25 16:58:00
While many countries have made cyberstalking illegal, the United States has not. Several states have passed various types of legislation addressing cyberstalking, but the resulting hodgepodge of cyberlaws typically requires proof of a plausible threat of violence toward the victim. Until the United States enacts federal legislation, criminalizing cyberstalking, most victims are left to fight cyberharassment on their own. What Can You Do?What you can do to protect yourself depends on the type of cyberstalking involved. Consider the following five factors when deciding how to proceed:The FactorsWho? In any situation where a child is threatened (cyberbullying), immediate adult intervention is a necessity. If it is a child harassing the child, the harasser’s parents and, possibly, the school administration should be contacted. If it is an adult harassing the child, contact the authorities immediately.What? Depending upon other factors, name-calling, disrespect, lewd remarks and/or rid...
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Net Neutrality - You'll Be Sorry
2008-01-23 17:31:00
What is Net Neutrality ?There is probably no bigger issue, that you know less about, than Net Neutrality. Unfortunately, by the time you realize what a huge impact it has on your life, it will likely be too late. Net Neutrality refers to the idea that you should be allowed to access any portion of the Internet you like. Internet heavyweights like AT&T, Comcast and Cox cable, however, want to break the Internet up, pare it down and charge you extra to access its different parts. Kind of like cable TV. You want HBO? another $230 every year. NFL Sunday Ticket? Another $250 annually. Even worse, if Net Neutrality fails, most of the websites on the Internet, no having an Internet Service Provider (ISP) pimping them, will simply wither on the vine and die.  Your ISP, not you, will be in control of what websites you can visit.Why Should I Care?Want to watch YouTube? Sorry, that competes with Hulu, you either have to watch the approved shows on Hulu, or pay a separate access fee to ...

Top 10 Black Inventors
2008-01-21 15:56:00
In honor of Martin Luther King Day, I wanted to post a list of some famous African-American inventors and their patents. There obviously may be some disagreement as to who should, and who should not, make the list of famous African-American inventors. I have tried to include not only those who have contributed to mankind as a whole, but also those African-American inventors we know from other endeavors, or from the fun things they have brought to our lives. 10)Thomas Mensah Dr. Mensah is the Chairman of Supercond Technology Inc. of Norcross, Georgia. Holder of many United States and International patents covering everything from fiber optics to guided vehicle systems, Dr. Mensah's work with SMART weapons, like the Patriot missile, were critical to the success of the Gulf War. Representative PatentGuided Vehicle System United States Letters Patent Number 5,035,1699) Lonnie G. JohnsonPresident of Johnson Research & Development Co. and formerly with NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, Lonnie ...
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7 Things About Trout
2008-01-18 21:23:00
Art Dinkin, of Moment on Money, has tagged me to post on the "Get To Know Your Author Meme." While I tend to resist any posts that do not directly relate to Intellectual Property law, how can I pass up a request to wax philosophic on the wonders of ME?Here are the rules:Link to the person who tagged youPost the RulesShare 7 random and/or weird things about yourself.Tag 7 random people at the end of the post and link to their blogs.So, here are 7 things that will not show up on my Wikipedia entry (I mean, once I get a Wikipedia entry):1. I lettered in diving in high school (strangely, the trend of 6'4" 250lb divers never caught on)2. I can stop a full speed ceiling fan with my tongue (do not attempt until you have worked up to 100 no-handed tongue-ups)3. I used to review DVDs for Chris Pirillo's world famousLockergnome (You can view some of my reviews on Reviewerrific)4. I love to race motorcycles (here is a YouTube clip of me in Canada trying to keep my more nimble buddy in frame ...
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Most Ridiculous Inventions Ever Patented
2007-11-27 22:45:00
Cracked.com has just published their list of the 10 most ridiculous inventions ever patented. Of particular note, is Iowa's own Flat-D Innovations' flatulence pad. Not to take anything away from Flat-D, which is quite wacky, but there are several inventions I feel should have made the list:Artificial dog testiclesApparatus for delivering a baby by centrifugal force.The BoobieFlask (that is actually what it is called)Sphincter training device (While I am not sure if my sphincter possesses the capacity to learn any tricks, I am fairly confident I have no desire to find out)Brett Troutwacky patents
More About: Inventions , Ridiculous

Steal This Photograph
2007-11-26 19:10:00
Free Advice People at cocktail parties (How old am I that I wind up at actual cocktail parties?) often ask me what they can do about people stealing photographs from their blog or website. I start by asking them what they have done to protect their photographs. The only constant seems to be that they all crash cocktail parties, cornering unsuspecting intellectual property attorneys for free advice (its the virgin strawberry Daiquiris that makes us so easy to spot). Luckily, waxing philosophic on the origins of copyright works like holy water on Nosferatu, and usually even before my ice gets all melty. Since you kind readers have been thoughtful enough to allow me to enjoy my beverages in peace, I have decided to share my thoughts on this subject, sans the legal history lesson. Here are the steps I would recommend to protect that precious shot of the snowboarding squirrel:Make Sure You Own the PhotographMany people mistakenly believe they own photographs they do not. If you hired som...
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The Law of Photography
2007-11-21 16:30:00
People are StrangePeople have very strange ideas about what constitutes fair use of other people's photographs. What they do not realize is, that by the time they get sued, simply claiming ignorance is no defense. Recent CasesPhotopreneur.com has just posted an interesting run down of some recent cases involving unauthorized use of third party photography. The cases are not just limited to copyright infringement. Several involve issues you may never have considered when snapping that depantsing of Uncle Lem. The Law of Photography Of course, those of you who keep an extra intellectual property attorney in the pantry for those times you wax philosophic on the epistemology of intangible property know these things, but for those of you who don't, here are some of the other, less well known, but no less harrowing, issues to consider when taking or using that next photograph. Right of PrivacyRight of PublicityFirst Amendment Interference with Official ActsNational SecurityBuildings no...

Don't Have an Affair With a State Employee
2007-11-21 00:24:00
Or at least don't write emails about it. Scorned husband Stephen Malmer just won the right to see over 55 pages of emails sent between his cheating state-employed wife and her co-worker, Stephen Malmer. Apparently, Mr. Malmer is not convinced the affair is over and, for some strange reason, is unwilling to take his loving wife's word on it. Turns out Franklin County Kentucky Judge Phillip J. Shepard is behind Mr. Malmer all the way. Judge Shepard has ordered the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet to make Ms. Malmer's emails public. Even though the emails contain private information, Judge Shepard ruled the public has a right to see how state employees use paid time to exchange non-work related messages. Even with all the press about bosses reading emails, lawyers demanding emails in lawsuits, and judges siding with scorned spouses like Mr. Malmer, people still seem bent on documenting their moral turpitude. Perhaps they secretly want to get caught. My guess is that even i...
More About: State , Employee , Affair

How Long Does It Take to Get a Patent or a Trademark?
2007-11-19 19:14:00
You Want it When?People are often surprised how long it takes to obtain a patent or a trademark. Copyright registrations often issue in less than a year. Why then, do patents and trademarks take so much longer? The primary reason is that there is no requirement that the copyrighted material be unique. Therefore, the Copyright Office does not have to hire anyone to run a search to see if anything like it has already been registered. Patent and trademark applications however, do have to be unique. Expert examinationAs you might imagine, if there is already a patent or trademark on your exact invention or name, rejecting your application takes little effort. Not surprisingly, the vetting becomes much more complex when the existing registrations are close, but not exact. Making determinations of unregistrable similarity requires someone with an undergraduate degree in engineering or science in the case of patents, and a law degree in the case of trademarks. With 467,000 patent applicati...
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Get a New Online Strategy
2007-11-17 23:13:00
Andy Brudtkuhl, of Get a New Browser, just posted an invaluable guide on budgeting your web strategy. I recommend the guide to new and existing businesses alike. Anyone looking to expand their online presence would be well served by Andy's take on information collected from experts in diverse fields of online business. The post details cost estimates relating to everything you need to grow your online business. From Hosting, to Search Engine Optimization to Legal considerations, Andy lays it all out in easy to digest morsels. Having everything in one place like this makes it easy to divvy up those precious resources devoted to online exposure. Once your your venture takes off, you can always go back to the post again and hit the bells and whistles you did not have the cash for the first time around. Otherwise, you can just sit and wait for more fairy dust to accumulate. Of course that strategy is going to require keeping my number close at hand. Brett Troutweb strategy seo
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Avoiding Lawsuits - Easy as 1, 2, 3
2007-11-14 20:41:00
'Cause We're So CoolAmong the huge number of attendees and speakers at BlogWorld in Las Vegas were some of the brightest online minds on the planet. Not surprisingly, these folks' main focus was harnessing the Internet to do their bidding. While the established ventures had their cadre of lawyers, thwarting legal dangers at every corner, most smaller companies had no idea if what they were doing was simply an online version of digging their own legal grave. Emboldened by the impunity with which sites like YouTube seem to operate, many figured that even if they were breaking the law, some magical YouTube fairy was going to sprinkle magic invincibility dust over their business. You know, because their approach was so cool. How Much Fairy Dust Do You Have?Most of the smaller companies seemed to be betting their entire future on the existence of this magic fairy dust. The fairy dust approach, however, may not be as strange as it might appear on first blush. Confronted with the crippl...
More About: Lawsuits , Easy

The Law of Blogging
2007-11-13 16:26:00
Last week, Abby Prince of WebProNews.com did a fantastic take-off on a L.A. Lakers locker room interview with me (I just have not figured out if I am standing on a box, or she is standing in a hole). Check out the interview here and be sure to visit WebProNews for Abby's other incredible interviews with powerhouses like Leo Laporte and Matt Mullenweg. (Viewing those videos, it is clear that I am either standing four feet closer to the camera or am merely freakishly huge).Brett TroutBlogWorld blogging Interviews
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Blogging For Dollars
2007-11-12 21:30:00
Apparently, The Polk County Bar Association is pleased to announce that I will be the speaker for their November luncheon. Granted, they have not heard me speak yet, but still . . .Actually, having just returned from my speaking engagement at BlogWorld, I am excited to share insights I garnered from bloggers across the country. The topic of my Des Moines presentation is "Blogging for Dollars ." Had the naming been left to me, I might have leaned toward either "Blogging 101 for Iowa Lawyers" or "Modifying Allowable Armor for your WoW Paladin". Methinks the audience might be the same either way. If you are an Iowa lawyer interested in blogging, or at least being able to converse intelligently with your blogging clients (you have them, whether you know it or not), feel free to join us at Downtown Des Moines Marriott Hotel, Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at noon. Tickets are $19.00 at the door.Brett Trout

Be Back Monday
2007-11-09 07:21:00
I am currently at BlogWorld in Las Vegas speaking on trademark and copyright issues for bloggers. Until I get back check out my interview on Phil Gerbyshak's Make It Great blog.Brett Trout
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