LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION™

Overreaching, Part XXVII: Major League Bozos, confirmed

Ron Coleman — Sun, 17 May 2026 07:02:33 +0000

Originally posted 2014-05-29 01:48:53. Republished by Blog Post PromoterSometimes we’re not only right, but a judge agrees with us. The AP reports: Fantasy baseball leagues are allowed to use player names and statistics without licensing agreements because they are not the intellectual property of Major League Baseball, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. Baseball and its […]

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The best of intentions

Ron Coleman — Sat, 16 May 2026 06:46:41 +0000

Originally posted 2016-07-27 12:45:36. Republished by Blog Post PromoterGoing to the well (i.e., other people’s blogs) again, and what better well than Duets Blog and Steve Baird? In a post a while ago Steve addressed an important topic regarding which there’s a lot of, er, confusion. And I’ll admit I was still a bit confused after […]

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Is the Internet replacing “journalism”?

Ron Coleman — Fri, 15 May 2026 06:40:16 +0000

Originally posted 2011-09-20 18:09:05. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Nicholas Lemann writes in The New Yorker: Reporting — meaning the tradition by which a member of a distinct occupational category gets to cross the usual bounds of geography and class, to go where important things are happening, to ask powerful people blunt and impertinent questions, […]

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Old trademarks never die…

Ron Coleman — Thu, 14 May 2026 06:26:44 +0000

Originally posted 2013-10-29 12:56:20. Republished by Blog Post PromoterThey just fade away. Mostly.

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The Trademark Singularity: Part 2

Ron Coleman — Wed, 13 May 2026 06:15:32 +0000

If we learned anything in Tam, it is that the Register should not be an expression of value judgments. It is and should be a register (small s). Of trademarks.

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Trademarks: The IP that isn’t IP

Ron Coleman — Tue, 12 May 2026 05:57:31 +0000

Originally posted 2019-02-13 13:08:09. Republished by Blog Post PromoterI have asked, begged, cajoled and — well, no I haven’t threatened Ed Timberlake; who could do that? — but in any event, he won’t write a guest post on this topic. So I have to rely on this tweet to get the post going: Frankly, a […]

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Best of 2009: Char’ed, I’m sure

Ron Coleman — Mon, 11 May 2026 05:48:24 +0000

Originally posted 2015-01-28 12:07:38. Republished by Blog Post PromoterFirst posted December 8, 2009. Poor Starbucks. So much trademark trouble they have! Other trouble, too. And now the people who gave you five-dollar coffee in a paper cup had lost another one — one they thought they had won, namely the Starbucks v. Charbucks case (decision here, […]

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The bong tolls for thee

Ron Coleman — Sun, 10 May 2026 05:32:32 +0000

Originally posted 2007-06-25 15:58:41. Republished by Blog Post PromoterAndy Carvin analyzes the Supreme Court’s decision, announced today, on the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case. Hat tip to Boing Boing. Justice Roberts, writing for himself in a patchwork of majority opinions, wrote, “A principal may, consistent with the First Amendment, restrict student speech at a school […]

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Strumming their fate

Ron Coleman — Sat, 09 May 2026 05:25:26 +0000

Originally posted 2006-06-06 20:39:18. Republished by Blog Post PromoterWe blogged a while ago about the Les Paul guitar lawsuit, based on the idea that the shape of the Les Paul guitar was a trademark of Gibson Guitars when the District of Tennessee declined to agree with that idea. Now it’s been finally resolved, and the […]

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Getting to the core of the Apple / Beatles TM settlement

Ron Coleman — Fri, 08 May 2026 05:15:32 +0000

Originally posted 2012-03-18 14:49:21. Republished by Blog Post PromoterNice little bit of journalism here: Apple Inc. scores trademark coup with Beatles’ label logos

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The heart wants what it wants

Ron Coleman — Thu, 07 May 2026 05:09:21 +0000

Originally posted 2011-08-24 12:55:22. Republished by Blog Post PromoterThe New York Law Journal (subscription required) reports: Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Bernard J. Fried has ruled that under the terms of a January 2003 settlement agreement, [Woody Allen’s former producer] may develop television-and-airplane versions of Mr. Allen’s “Bullets Over Broadway,” “Mighty Aphrodite,” “Everyone Says I Love […]

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Taking the IP Train

Ron Coleman — Wed, 06 May 2026 05:04:10 +0000

Originally posted 2010-09-06 16:08:53. Republished by Blog Post PromoterThe New York Times reported (yes, reg. req.) last week that New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority is scrambling to enforce trademark rights in its wide array of iconography, including the famous alphanumeric train symbols known to all New Yorkers. Evidently powered by the MTA’s burgeoning licensing program, […]

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