2024

Here’s What Happened: In the late 1960s, Sonny and Cher, the married singing duo, had chart topping hit records and a television variety show. Fame can be hard on a marriage and they eventually broke up. In their divorce proceedings, they entered into a marital settlement agreement (MSA) that split their rights in their collective […]

Here’s What Happened: Beteiro LLC owns four patents that share a common specification and title “Apparatus and Method for Facilitating Gaming Activity and/or Gambling Activity.” Each of the patents facilitated remote gambling activity. The patent examiner determined that the software had the needed specific machine or processor, namely a GPS system, to be patented. Beteiro […]

Here’s What Happened: Political discourse can include the use of a politician’s name in a less than flattering light. But can someone elevate it to a trademark registration? The US Supreme Court says “no” unless you have the politician’s permission. Steve Elster sought to register the trademark “Trump too Small,” accompanied by an illustration of […]

Here’s What Happened: Alfwear Inc. sells outdoor clothing. In 1993, the company rebranded and started using the German word “kühl” meaning a cool temperature for its clothing line. Alfwear has used the trademark KÜHL ever since for its clothing and expanded related products like luggage, lip balm, mints, and posters. Alfwear also registered the word […]

Here’s What Happened: In fall 2016, rapper Emelike Nwosuocha, a/k/a Kidd Wes, wrote and published a song called “Made in America.” In May 2017, Kidd Wes applied to register the album that included “Made in America” with the US Copyright Office. The Copyright Office issued a sound recording registration. In 2018, the rapper Donald Glover, […]

Here’s What Happened:   In the 1970s, Laverne John Andrusiek created a comic book featuring the title character, Captain Cannabis. Starting in 1999, Laverne promoted his character in an anticipated adult animated comic book series at a trade show. Also in 1999, he registered the domain name captaincannabis.com for a website to promote the character […]

Here’s What Happened:   In 1983, Sherman Nealy and Tony Butler formed Music Specialists, Inc. The company recorded and released one album and several singles. A few years later, Sherman and Tony had a parting of the ways. Sherman’s post Music Specialists career hit the skids. He was convicted of drug related offenses and served […]

In Brief:  Creating a deep fake of George Carlin wasn’t funny. Here’s What Happened:   Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen host a podcast called “Dudsey”. Among other things, Dudsey, has created deep fakes of celebrities and creates hour long podcasts featuring them. A year ago, Tom Brady threatened to sue the show after they published […]

In Brief:  Inventorship can be based on unclaimed improvements that are necessary for enabling the invention to work.  Here’s What Happened:   Steve Campbell invented a container for transporting gaseous fluids consisting of an insulated housing, pressure vessels and port bosses. But his prototypes suffered from numerous problems, including slippage of the port boss on […]