Last December, as you may recall, the North Face Apparel Co. sued The South Butt LLC, a company started by Missouri teenager Jimmy Winkelmann. North Face alleged that South Butt was infringing and diluting the famous North Face trademark. The…
Some men's dreams do not die easily. Earl J. Braxton is such a man. In 1977, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan ruled that Braxton could not use the phrase "Here's Johnny" for a business that…
According to the New York Times, some of the "Mardi Gras Indians" have been registering copyrights in the "ornate, enormous, feathered costumes" they make themselves and wear three times a year on special occasions in New Orleans. These can cost…
You will recall that in the run-up to the Super Bowl, a battle broke out over the use of "Who Dat," a phrase associated with the New Orleans Saints for many years now. The NFL started telling people not to…
An Australian judge has ruled that the group Men at Work plagiarized the flute riff in the song "Down Under" from a children's song written in 1932. The ruling means that the Men will have to pay royalties, although the…
On Monday, the NFL backed down and said that it would not object to shirts or other gear that were not presented as official Saints or NFL products, even if they use the team colors, the fleur-de-lis or the phrase "Who…
The other day I wrote about the euphoria of the Who Dat Nation, the newly forged union of New Orleans Saints fans eagerly preparing for their team's first Super Bowl. Over the past week, tensions escalated dramatically between the Who…
Because of what it referred to as a "great increase of affection and esteem for the person of the Holy Father" in recent years (I assume that's a rhetorical flourish, because I don't recall the public really dumping on John Paul…
Here's yet another reason why those of you who are always going around singing "bow wow wow, yippie yo, yippie yea," need to stop doing that. I'm talking to you, Dick Cheney. The Sixth Circuit ruled recently in a copyright…
As I think I have mentioned before, I occasionally do presentations based on "Lowering the Bar" for law firms, in-house legal departments, bar associations, and/or anybody else who might be interested. I gave one of these at Microsoft on October…