Blawg ITBlawg ITOngoing discussion of legal aspects of the online world. Blawg IT analyzes the very latest patent, copyright, trademark and licensing issues that affect you and your company. Blogging since 2003, Brett Trout is a registered patent attorney and author 
Articles
Iowa Supreme Court Upholds Sexting Conviction
2009-09-18 16:50:00 Sexting Etiquette At the outset, let me impart some advice, based upon my collective analysis cyberlaw cases over the past two decades. Regardless of how many times your underage girl “friend” requests you to email her a picture of your penis, do not, let me repeat, do not email your underage girl “friend” a photograph of ... More About: Supreme Court , Iowa , Court
Moral Panics and The Copyright Wars
2009-09-17 17:39:00 The Author Reading William Patry’s latest book Moral Panics and The Copyright Wars , I found myself in the unusual position of finally agreeing with an author on the morality (or better immorality) of our current copyright system. Senior Copyright Counsel for Google (although he makes it very clear that his views are not necessarily those ...
Is Your Company?s Most Valuable Asset Unprotected?
2009-09-14 20:32:00 What is Your Company ’s Most Valuable Asset ? If you said something other than your company’s name, you might want to think again. Your company’s name, or trademark, is your interface with your customers. It is how you differentiate the quality of your goods and services from those of substandard competitors. Your name embodies all of ...
Microsoft Tries to Bully the World
2009-09-08 05:03:00 Microsoft Calls for a Single “World Patent” Last week Microsoft Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Horacio Gutierrez opined “In today?s world of universal connectivity, global business and collaborative innovation, it is time for a world patent that is derived from a single patent application, examined and prosecuted by a single examining authority and ... More About: Microsoft , Bully , The World
The Internet is a Cyberlaw Minefield
2009-08-31 19:22:00 Watch Your StepDoing business online can be as difficult as it is lucrative. Hiring the Web site developer, tracking orders, updating changes, ensuring supply, collecting money, etc. all require time and planning. One thing often overlooked is the legal ramifications of online business. While most business owners have a sense of what it takes to ... More About: Internet , The Internet
Do I Need a Patent?
2009-08-24 17:09:00 What is a Patent ?A patent is a piece of paper which allows you to stop other people from making your invention without your permission. There are several different kinds of patents: plant patents, design patents, provisional patents and utility patents. The patents most people are familiar with are utility patents. Utility patents cover mousetraps, one-click ...
Does Twitter own the trademark on ?Tweet??
2009-08-22 00:18:00 Sam Johnston has a great post on Twitter ’s recent trademark trouble. The following post attempts to shed a little legal light on what is a rather complex intellectual property issue. The Twitter Trademark Application On April 16, 2009, Twitter filed a federal trademark application for the trademark “Tweet .” The application covered the following three
Shut Up About Your Vacation
2009-08-19 16:22:00 The Good With the BadTwitter , Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, blogs, message boards, and other social media platforms are great ways to connect with large groups of people. Being transparent about who you are and what you do has many advantages. Transparency generates trust. It builds relationships. It also lures criminals to you. Identifying the potential dangers ... More About: Vacation , Shut , Shut Up
50 Best Patent Blogs
2009-08-11 16:18:00 Gene Quinn of IPWatchdog.com has scoured the globe for the 50 top patent blogs. He then asked his readers to vote on their favorites. Your votes placed BlawgIT within the top 10, with such powerhouse blogs as Patent lyO and IP Kat. Thank you all, and especially Chris Branstad, for your support. Here is the ... More About: Blogs
Bullying Bilski
2009-08-09 17:06:00 It is rare that so many entities can opine so uniformly negatively against a single court ruling. While they cannot seem to agree on the “right” test for patentability, nearly forty entities have filed amicus curiae briefs bashing the Transformation or Result (”ToM”) test for patentability recently adopted by the Court of Appeals for the ... More About: Bullying
Transformers v. Decepticons - Petitioner?s Brief In Bilski
2009-08-06 19:08:00 Background Petitioners Bernard Bilski and Rand Warsaw filed their Brief For Petitioners last week in what could be this decade’s watershed patent ruling. The patent at issue relates to a method for managing risk when buying or selling energy commodities. The law at issue is whether a process must: 1) be tied to a particular machine ... More About: Transformers
Brett Trout Selected For Inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America
2009-08-04 17:47:00 Brett J. Trout has been selected by his peers for inclusion in the 2010 edition of The Best Lawyers in America ® in the specialties of Information Technology Law and Intellectual Property Law. The Best Lawyers® publication is the oldest peer-reviewed publication in the legal profession. For over 25 years, Best Lawyers® continues to be regarded, ... More About: Iowa , Inclusion , Brett
Des Moines Developer Hits Big Time with BNO iPhone App
2009-08-03 21:57:00 For months, I have been following @BreakingNews on Twitter, staying up to date with all the latest news affecting our world. BNO News, Inc, the owner of Breaking News, currently delivers to over 1,000,000 readers world-wide. In my estimation, there has never been a faster, more accurate resource for breaking world-wide news coverage. Until now. ... More About: Pod , Iphone , Developer , Time , Hits
Before You Fire That Social Networker ?
2009-08-03 18:56:00 The Problem The Des Moines Register reports that in the past year alone, businesses have fired several workers for posting objectionable material to social networking websites. The latest incident involves a Casey’s General Stores employee the company fired for posting material to YouTube. What is and what is not “objectionable” online is in the eye ... More About: Social , Fire
Add Social Media to Your Corporate Arsenal
2009-07-28 17:18:00 The Problem If your company is online and you have not experienced a public relations problem, you soon will. The question is whether you are adequately prepared to handle it. Disgruntled customers, online trolls, security breaches and unintentional blunder can all lead to public relations problems. Unlike a public relations problem in the real world, an ... More About: Social , Media , Arsenal , Corporate
Destructive Phone Pranksters Exploit Workers
2009-07-13 21:44:00 Late Night Prank You find yourself staying in a hotel and get a late night call from the front desk. Apparently, they want you to throw your toilet out the window. Protip: Go ahead and get some independent verification before doing that. Recently, a group called PrankNET has been phoning people and businesses in a ... More About: Phone , Workers , Exploit
Talking Patents With dsm Buzz
2009-07-08 16:37:00 If you have an interest in determining whether those crank calls you have have been receiving are coming from me, now is your chance to do a voice check. Sherry Borzo of Des Moines’ own dsm Buzz has interviewed for her podcast. In it, we discuss all things patent and cyberlaw. Although I am certainly ... More About: Talking , Patents
Fair Use FAQ
2009-06-30 16:36:00 Opinions on Fair Use - Everyone’s Got One Everyone has heard of the term ?fair use.? Everyone has an opinion as to what it means. Unfortunately, very few of those people have any idea what they are talking about. And when it comes to fair use, the only thing worse than no advice, is bad advice. ... More About: Twitter , Fair Use
What Should I Use on My Trademark: ®, TM or SM?
2009-06-29 22:14:00 Your company has a trademark, but what do you know about it? Does your company use one of these symbols with its trademark: ®, TM and SM? Are they required? Does it matter? What is a Trademark ?A trademark is a word, name, phrase, symbol, color, scent or sound used to identify particular goods or services as ...
Single Mother Ordered to Pay RIAA $1.92M for File-Sharing 24 Songs
2009-06-19 17:43:00 I have previously blogged about Jammie Thomas-Rasset. In 2007, a Minnesota jury awarded the RIAA a judgment against the 32 year old single mother of four, to the tune of $222,000. When a federal jury heard her case in 2007, it hit Thomas-Rasset with a seemingly astronomical $222,000 judgment. After reviewing the case, the judge ... More About: File Sharing , Songs , File , Mother , Single
The Little Black Book For Lawyers
2009-06-16 16:34:00 The Importance of Marketing I remember way back when I first got out of law school. I had no idea how important marketing was. I figured, just be the best lawyer in the world and the world will beat a path to your door. Soon I learned “What good is being the best lawyer in the ... More About: Lawyers , Book , Black , Black Book
Top 10 Things You Need to Know About Digital Natives
2009-06-11 16:44:00 Who are Digital Natives?Marc Prensky coined the term “Digital Natives” back in 2001. Digital Natives are people who grew up immersed in technology. They never knew a time before personal computers or recorded television. While most people born after 1980 qualify as Digital Natives, some born even earlier may qualify, depending upon their immersion ... More About: Things
Vote For Best Patent Blog
2009-06-03 19:47:00 If you enjoy reading this blog, you should seek the advice of a trained medical professional. Before you do however, take a second to visit Gene Quinn’s IPWatchdog.com blog and vote for your favorite patent blog. BlawgIT is not ad-sponsored. It is fueled solely by my unmitigated narcissism. If you have enjoyed the ride and ... More About: General , Blog , Vote , Patent
TiVo Shares Jump 50% on Patent Win
2009-06-03 17:57:00 Bad news for all you couch potatoes out there. If you have Dish Network, you may no longer be able to use your digital video recorder to rewind programs while you watch them. All those Larry the Cable Guy jokes that went over your head the first time. Gone forever. In addition to causing a ... More About: Tivo , Jump , Shares , Patent
Appelate Court Slashes Patent Award By $87M
2009-06-02 17:06:00 The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) cut a 2007 $226M patent infringement award by $87M Monday. The case, Dupuy v. Medtronic, involved infringement of United States patent 5,207,678 by Medtronic’s Vertex line of pedicle surgical screws. The CAFC cut $77.2M from the judgment relating to lost profits from the sale of related, ... More About: Award , Patent
United State Supreme Court Grants Certiorari in Bilski (business method) Pa
2009-06-01 18:23:00 The United State s Supreme Court has taken the unusual move of agreeing to review the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s (CAFC) decision in In re Bernard Bilski (In re Bilski). What might this mean for the future of business method patents? While I cannot see into the future, a little look in to ... More About: Business , Grants
Vote BlawgIT - Best Patent Blog
2009-05-28 22:30:00 Gene Quinn of IPWatchdog.com has compiled a list of the Top 50 Patent blogs and has sent out a call on the interwebs for everyone to vote for their favorite patent blog. Whether you have been reading BlawgIT since inception in 2003, or just recently became a fan, now is your chance to show your ... More About: Blog , Vote
Top 5 Myths About Patents
2009-05-28 17:35:00 Over seventeen years of drafting patents I have run across a lot of misconceptions about patents. Unfortunately, I sometimes hear them from would-be clients, crushed to learn their misunderstanding has cost them the chance to patent their inventions. Patent law is complex and constantly changing. Staying on top of the latest information is a full ... More About: Events , General , Myths , Patents
Social Networking and the Identity Theft Flu
2009-05-15 21:21:00 Identity Thieves Getting SmarterIdentity thieves are savvy. They learned long ago that obvious grabs for your personal information garner far fewer suckers than a more subtle grift. One of the more recent inventive schemes is abusing social networks by turning the scam into a game. According to PC World’s blog, scammers are now leveraging your ... More About: Social , Social Networking , Networking , Identity Theft , Theft
The Pirate Bay - When Big Business and the Judiciary Are One in the Same
More articles from this author:2009-04-25 02:56:00 The Copyright Case Heard ‘Round the World As you may have heard last week, a Swedish judge meted out Draconian punishments to four individuals accused of running The Pirate Bay website. What you may not have heard was that, according to a post in this week’s Torrent Freak, the verdict in one of the biggest online ... More About: Business , Big Business , Judiciary , The Pirate Bay 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
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