Not iWatch, Because iSwatch?

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As The New York Times reports, the long-rumored and much-ballyhooed Apple Watch was announced yesterday to great fanfare.  While its feature set includes the latest technological advances, the Apple Watch is arguably most notable for what it omits: an “i” at the beginning of its name.  For the past sixteen years, “iBranding” has been a central part of Apple’s success, with names such as iMac, iPhone, iPad, iPod, iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, iLife, iWork, iBooks, iCloud, and iOS ranking among the most iconic and recognizable brands in the world.  Apple has not publicly stated the reason for eschewing the iWatch moniker for its new device, but a contributing factor may have been a desire to avoid a threatened trademark dispute with Swatch over that company’s iSwatch product.  Read the full article here.

Reposted from The New York Times.

Intellectual Property is in Fashion

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In honor of Fashion Week, The New York Times has an interesting feature on intellectual property protection for fashion designs, with opinions from different industry observers about the scope of available protection, potential changes in the legal landscape, and the challenges posed by knockoffs and counterfeit goods.  Read the full article here.

Korea.net / Korean Culture and Information Service

Korea.net / Korean Culture and Information Service

Reposted from The New York Times.

Law Professor Wants the R-Word Off the Air

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The ABA Journal reports that a George Washington University law professor has filed an FCC petition opposing the renewal of a radio station’s license over its use of the term “redskins.”  The professor, John Banzhaf, maintains that the name of Washington’s NFL team is a racially derogatory word that should be viewed in the same light as the “n-word,” and points out that a radio station that repeatedly used the “n-word” in sports broadcasts would lose its license.  The FCC petition follows a June ruling by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board cancelling all six of the team’s REDSKINS trademark registrations on the basis that the term is disparaging to Native Americans.  Read the full article here, and the full petition here.

Reposted from the ABA Journal.

Getty Images Sues Microsoft For Bing-fringement

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As reported in GeekWire, Getty Images sued Microsoft yesterday for copyright infringement over Microsoft’s new Bing Image Widget, a software tool that allows websites to display images retrieved in Bing’s search results.  Getty Images alleges in its complaint that Microsoft “has turned the entirety of the world’s online images into little more than a vast, unlicensed ‘clip art’ collection for the benefit of those website publishers who implement the Bing Image Widget, all without seeking permission from the owners of the copyrights.”  Read the full article here, and Getty Image’s complaint here.

Reposted from GeekWire.

The Michelin Man Used to Be Even Creepier

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Wired takes a look at the history behind five of the world’s most famous logos: the Michelin Man, the NASA logo, the CBS logo, the peace sign, and the AT&T logo.  The origins of the five logos, along with two dozen others, are explored in detail in the book TM: The Untold Stories Behind 29 Classic Logos, written by Mark Sinclair.  Fun fact: the Michelin Man, or “Bibendum,” was registered as a US trademark in 1970, but has been terrifying children and haunting dreams since 1898.  Read the full article here.

Reposted from Wired.

Jennifer Lawrence Uses Copyright Law to Take Down Hacked Photos

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CBC News reports that Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, and other celebrities who have had intimate photos stolen from their digital devices and leaked online are using copyright law to fight back against websites and individuals who post the pilfered images.  Read the full article here.

"Jennifer Lawrence SDCC 2013 X-Men" by Gage Skidmore - https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/9362866300/. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jennifer_Lawren…

"Jennifer Lawrence SDCC 2013 X-Men" by Gage Skidmore - https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/9362866300/. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jennifer_Lawrence_SDCC_2013_X-Men.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Jennifer_Lawrence_SDCC_2013_X-Men.jpg

Reposted from CBC News.

Changes in EU Trademark Rules May Require New Strategies for Trademark Owners

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JD Supra has a good piece on the European Union’s recently enacted changes in the rules governing the scope of protection afforded to design trademarks with no color claim (black and white design marks).  In the US, black and white design marks are granted broad protection, essentially covering the design in any color.  Under the prior rules of the EU, however, different jurisdictions had different rules governing the scope of protection for black and white design marks.  While the new changes aim to harmonize the inconsistent approaches in different countries and set standards for the EU as a whole, they may also require trademark owners to rethink their strategies for both the protection and use of their marks.  Read the full article here.

Reposted from JD Supra.

Heart of Darknet

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World Trademark Review has a useful infographic that sheds some light on the Darknet, the part of the Internet that is not indexed by search engines, and where users can surf anonymously.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Darknet is a known haven for counterfeiting and other infringing activities that are of particular interest to trademark and copyright owners.  View the infographic here.

Reposted from World Trademark Review.