The Robb Report » trademark http://www.weblaws.org/robb Ethics, law school and programming Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:51:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 The End of (Visual) Orphan Works? http://www.weblaws.org/robb/2010/04/15/the-end-of-visual-orphan-works/ http://www.weblaws.org/robb/2010/04/15/the-end-of-visual-orphan-works/#comments Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:39:20 +0000 Robb http://greenfabric.com/robb/?p=534

Orphan work: SpilledCoffee.jpg

Ironically, I was about to write a blog post, A New World of Orphan Works.  I had wanted a picture of spilled coffee in an ad for OregonLaws.org:  I had found this one online, perfect for my project, but without any attribution.  Contacting the web page author didn’t help.

Enter Tin Eye, a “reverse image search”. Upload an image, and it instantly finds many places on the web where it appears.

It may turn into a really useful tool for several purposes.  Here, it found unauthorized re-uses of a product logo belonging to Panic Software, a local Portland software shop:

Here, a more typical search result showing where one’s work ends up:

Finally, Tin Eye can be used to track down the origin of an “orphan work”.  In my case, I discovered that I already had the rights to use the image (stock photo in a collection I own).

http://www.tineye.com/

http://www.tineye.com/cool_searches

]]> http://www.weblaws.org/robb/2010/04/15/the-end-of-visual-orphan-works/feed/ 0 Yes, but just how ethical am *I*? (Is this blog’s name ‘over the line’?) http://www.weblaws.org/robb/2008/12/22/yes-but-just-how-ethical-am-i-is-this-blogs-name-over-the-line/ http://www.weblaws.org/robb/2008/12/22/yes-but-just-how-ethical-am-i-is-this-blogs-name-over-the-line/#comments Tue, 23 Dec 2008 04:11:03 +0000 Robb http://greenfabric.com/robb/?p=171 Something that’s gnawed at me since I started blogging:  Am I being pretty bad by calling this blog, The Robb Report?

The Robb Report, of course, is “The Global Luxury Source”.  They’re a reliable destination for Rolls-Royce reviews.  We can all probably agree that my blog and the Robb Report travel in different circles.

I’ve known about the magazine for years, most likely from seeing it in doctors’ waiting rooms.  And when choosing this name for my blog, one of my reasons was the humor arising from the contrast of the two Robb Reports, for those who are familiar with the senior mark holder.

But I wonder, (1) is what I’m doing ethical? And (2) am I infringing on Robb Report’s mark?

I’ll think about these more after this never-ending final exam period is over.

]]> http://www.weblaws.org/robb/2008/12/22/yes-but-just-how-ethical-am-i-is-this-blogs-name-over-the-line/feed/ 1 The meaning of a name, and the six-fingered foam hand http://www.weblaws.org/robb/2008/12/20/the-meaning-of-a-name-and-the-case-of-the-six-fingered-hand/ http://www.weblaws.org/robb/2008/12/20/the-meaning-of-a-name-and-the-case-of-the-six-fingered-hand/#comments Sat, 20 Dec 2008 12:50:26 +0000 Robb http://greenfabric.com/robb/?p=136 Six fingered Auburn War Eagles Foam HandFrom the LexisNexis trademark law podcast:  An alumni / fan of Auburn University designs and sells giant foam hands printed with university’s marks.  Auburn files suit and has won a preliminary injunction.

What stands out to me is that a college’s or team’s name on a fan article does not seem like an “indicator of source” to consumers.  This would distinguish it from Board of Regents v. KST, for example (sports fan / alumni uses alma mater’s mark in the name of his private company).

In other words, people walk around with “Ralph Lauren” printed on their shirts for entirely different reasons than, say, “Oregon State University”.

And when I (admittedly, a non-sport-fan consumer) see someone with Oregon State University on a sweatshirt, I don’t think to myself, “OSU made that great sweatshirt”, but rather, “That person supports OSU.”  In my theory, this use is essentially descriptive, and the text is short for “A fan of OSU.”  (I realize that even this longer version may not be truly descriptive, though.)

Additionally, I think that Kozinski’s arguments in Mattel v. MCA Records (a.k.a the Barbie Girl Song case, finding (1) a different type of use when in the name of an art work — this is analogous to the different use on a fan article — and (2) the broad First Amendment protection for not-purely-commercial speech) are persuasive here.

But maybe I’m the one who’s odd.  Maybe sports fans, the consumers for these products, expect that only the mark owner manufactures/licenses these products.

Links:

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