Topics
- E-Discovery
- E-Discovery Case Law
- Trademark
- Privacy
- Social Media
- Credit CARD Act
- Litigation
- Logos
- Branding
- Marketing
- Intellectual Property
Contributors
Subscribe to RSS
Recent Posts
- Court Rules on Social Media Sites' Privacy Settings
- Supreme Court's Ruling in American Needle Creates Uncertainty Over Future of NFL Licensing
- Facebook: Now Presenting, "Brand Destruction!"
- Time to Update Your Facebook Settings... Again
- Brand Dilution At Its Finest: BMW's New "M" Bicycle
- Lindsay Lohan -- The Cure for Writer's Block
- New Gift Card Laws Are a Gift for Cardholders
- In With the Old? An Update.
- Does The North Face Have Its Head in Its Butt?
- New Internationalized Domain Names May Make Internet Trademark Enforcement Even More Difficult
Other KMK Blogs
Court Rules on Social Media Sites' Privacy Settings
On May 26th, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ruled that, under the Stored Communications Act of 1986, postings to a user’s Facebook “wall” (and, similarly, to the “comments” page on MySpace – although nobody actually uses MySpace anymore) are considered private so long as the user has his privacy settings set such that only “friends” can see his wall postings.
Supreme Court's Ruling in American Needle Creates Uncertainty Over Future of NFL Licensing
In a landmark decision, released (coincidentally?) on the first day of the International Trademark Association’s Annual Meeting, the U.S. Supreme Court held, in American Needle, Inc. v. National Football League, that the NFL’s licensing activities are covered by Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act which prohibits “every contract, combination in the form of a trust or otherwise, or, conspiracy, in restraint of trade.” As a result, the NFL will now be required to demonstrate, on remand, that such activities comport with the so-called “Rule of Reason.”
Facebook: Now Presenting, "Brand Destruction!"
Since we created an Evolving Media & Technology Team here at KMK, I have been telling brand owners to proactively manage their presence on Facebook by creating an official, corporate, Facebook page and strategically selecting the fan pages and copycat pages to shut down. After yet another “update” to its site late last week, Facebook has now made this kind of brand management exponentially more difficult for trademark owners.
Time to Update Your Facebook Settings... Again
I’ll give Facebook credit for one thing — they keep making you come back to their site, if for no other reason than to perform a little “preventative maintenance” on your profile from time to time.
Yesterday, Facebook took the first step toward their goal of Facebook-ing the entire planet by announcing that its familiar “like” button will start showing up all over the internet on non-Facebook sites. I guess because it’s so much fun to tell people that you “like” their Facebook status, Facebook now wants you to have that opportunity wherever you’re surfing online.
Brand Dilution At Its Finest: BMW's New "M" Bicycle
Today, BMW announced that, beginning in June, customers can order its new “M” bicycle. The bike, which you can see courtesy of Autoblog, is nice enough on the eyes. But one wonders whether BMW has finally gone too far, indiscriminately slapping its “M” brand on something that is less than true to the “M” heritage.
Lindsay Lohan -- The Cure for Writer's Block
Those of you following my blog (both of you) may have noticed that I’ve been suffering from a nasty case of writer’s block, as I haven’t posted anything for about 2 months. Thankfully, I have been cured. Lindsay Lohan is my muse.
New Gift Card Laws Are a Gift for Cardholders
If you are anything like me, while cleaning out your junk drawer this spring you will probably find numerous unused gift cards, given to you by various friends and family members last Christmas, or even on your birthday two years ago. For me, the initial excitement of getting a gift card or gift certificate quickly leaves the mind once that gift card is stuffed into a drawer. And if, like me, you often find those cards exactly one day after they “expire,” a new federal law may offer you (and me) some hope.
In With the Old? An Update.
This is an update on my November 9th post regarding new and (sometime not) improved logos adopted by various companies. In that post, I talked about how much I didn’t like Pepsi’s new logo, which to me looks like a store-brand, generic logo. Well, perhaps Pepsi agrees with me...
Does The North Face Have Its Head in Its Butt?
You may have heard that on Thursday, December 10th, The North Face Apparel Corp. (home page here) sued 19-year old entrepreneur (and, apparently, amateur comic) Jimmy Winkelmann in a Missouri District Court for trademark infringement arising out of a parody Mr. Winkelmann created out of The North Face’s rather well known logo.
New Internationalized Domain Names May Make Internet Trademark Enforcement Even More Difficult
As if protecting trademarks from domain name cyber-squatters was not already difficult enough, the recent announcement by the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”) regarding internationalized domain names (“IDNs”) may add to brand owners’ already significant headaches in this area.