Can Someone “Trademark” the Term SEO?
In the past week, there’s been a lot of hullabaloo about someone attempting to file a U.S. trademark application for registration of the term “SEO.” The applicant in question here has identified a long litany of advertising related services in connection with which the SEO mark has been used. As surely as the phases of the moon […]
Miguel Danielson to speak at WordCamp Boston 2010 session entitled How Not to Get Sued: Legal Issues Bloggers Face
The Perils of a Poorly Chosen Trademark
Look no further than this news story about an Iowa t-shirt company that felt the very painful sting of failing to clear their trademark. The lessons that this company learned the hard way are the same ones I try to convey to my clients as early as possible in their business life cycle. The best […]
iPhone Developer Legal Guide
We are pleased to present the iPhone Developer Legal Guide, a short publication that covers several of the most pressing intellectual property issues of concern to iPhone Developers. Given the popularity of the iPhone app store and the still-exploding growth of development activity around it, we thought it would be useful for developers to get […]
Twitter Username Lawsuit Gone as Quickly as it Came
St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony Larussa filed in May a lawsuit against Twitter, claiming that the company’s allowance of the username “TonyLaRussa” was a violation of his rights. In particular, LaRussa claimed that the account and its use constituted a violation of his trademark rights, misappropriation of his name and likeness, and an invasion of […]
Business Lessons from the Facebook Terms of Use Mess
Just over a month ago, and all in the span of a single week, Facebook.com announced a set of drastic changes to its Terms and Conditions, a massive revolt ensued, and just as quickly as it all started, Facebook retreated. As the dust settled, many great legal analyses of the events quickly made their way […]