Tabberone's Articles on Trademark and Copyright Infringement.

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Articles on Trademark and Copyright Infringement!

Last Updated June 14, 2008

These articles concern major trademark and copyright issues. They are reproduced with the original source referenced. Bear in mind, these articles are copyrighted and commercial use without permission of the authors may be considered infringement. The intended use here is educational and non-commercial. The reason they are reproduced, as opposed to just providing a link, is because links disappear and pages are removed. The original pages were placed on the internet for others to see and be able to reference. We are continuing that intention by reproducing them here. Besides, they load faster here because we don't have all the extras to slow down the loading.

We do not agree with all of the opinions or conclusions stated in these articles. We only present articles that we consider to be well-argued and factually supported.

See the Federal Court Cases page for more information.

Alteration Issues By Donald M. Gindy, 2002 article about the First Sale Doctrine as applied to trademarks. Appears to be quite biased towards the corporate lawyer view of trademarks and copyrights but has some good references.

American Bar Association report Committee #304 Report from 1996-1997, presents some interesting ABA views as to the trademark and copyright laws such as "fair use", "framing", and "useful articles".

America Online, Inc. v. AT&T Corp article by Phillip Nizer about this 2001 case. Cites a lot from the court decision concerning generic trademarks.

Beanie Baby Trademark Wars article by Eric J. Sinrod for USA Today, October 10, 2002.
Beanie Baby Trademark Wars 2 article by Phillip Nizer about this 2002 case.

Calder and World-Wide and Shoe, Oh My!, an article posted on Concurring Opinions by Jaya Ramji-Nogales on February 15, 2008. It talks about the clearly-written 10th Circuit Appeals opinion, Dudnikov v. Chalk & Vermilion Fine Arts.

Car-Freshner Corporation v. S.C. Johnson & Son an analysis of the 1996 decision.

Computer Software Terms Unfair, a BBC report from February 2008 about EULAs (shrinkwrap licenses).

Robert J. Morrill did a lengthy paper called Copyright Registration and Derivative Works By Jonathan Hudis and Amy C. Sullivan, 2001 article.

Copyright Registration Requirements Strictly Upheld by David Roy Ellis, 2003 article.

Court smacks Autodesk, affirms right to sell used software by Timothy B. Lee, published: May 23, 2008 for ars Technia.

Court: Sewing Patterns are Data, Not Code from Wired.com, August 31, 2006.

Copyright Law and Parallel Imports by Paul D. Supnik, discusses Quality King Distributors, Inc. v. L'Anza Research International Supreme Court decision.

DASTAR CORP. V. TWENTIETH CENTURY FOXFILM CORP Syllabus, June 2003, concerning "false designation of origin".

Disclaimers And Federal Court article from LSU about the Westchester Media Co., L.P. v. PRL USA Holdings, Inc decision

Don't Post This Cease And Desist Letter Or Else.shtml by Greg Beck, October 5, 2007.

Emphasizing the Copy in Copyright, 2005 article about derivatives by Michael K. Erickson

Fighting Back And Winning In Trademark-land, a MicroEnterprise Journal article about Tabberone fighting Major League baseball over fabric from 2003.

"HOG" Generic for Large Motorcycle, article by Peter S. Sloane for Ostrolenk, Faber, Gerb & Soffen, LLP.

Initial Interest Confusion: Standing at the Crossroads of Trademark Law , article by Jennifer E. Rothman, Loyola Law School, in the Cardozo Law Review, Vol. 27, p. 105, 2005.

L'anza Research International Inc. v. Quality King Distributors is discussed in this edited article. The only editing was to exclude other cases. The wording was not altered. This ruling was appealed to the Supreme Court and reversed (see syllabus below - Quality King vs L'Anza Research).

Lindows Wins Over Windows, Microsoft loses a big one, By Brenda Sandburg for The Recorder, March 19, 2002.

Lindows Ruling Appealed by Microsoft, Sam Costello, IDG News Service, April 3, 2002.

Mattel Loses Again, Yahoo! News, Wednesday, December 31, 2003, By DAVID KRAVETS, Associated Press Writer for The Associated Press Tue Dec 30,12:28 AM ET.

A Design for the Copyright of Fashion by Jennifer Menckin, December 12, 1997, arguments about whether clothing designs should be copyrightable.

New Kids on the Block v News America Publishing by Sam Biers, December 12, 1997, classroom outline about the classic "fair use" case.

Not Too Precious Moment where Precious Moments lost most of what they wanted, article about the 1998 case, Enesco Corp. et al. v. Price/Costco, Inc.

Parallel Imports, a lengthy article about parallel imports and the Quality King decision, by Lynda J. Zadra-Symes and Joseph J. Basista, May 1998, for Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear, LLP.

Parallel Imports and Copyright Law, by Paul D. Supnik.

Paypal (eBay) loses suit over mandatory arbitration. A federal judge in San Jose, California, ruled against Paypal (eBay) and the mandatory arbitration clause in their user agreement. September 2002.

ProCD Inc. v. Zeidenberg concerns "shrinkwrap licensing agreements". Excerpted article.

The 7 Deadly Myths of Internet Copyright by Attorney David L. Amkraut.

Scientology: eBay E-Meter Auctions Yanked, article from Apr 28, 2000 on Slashdot.org.

Scientology abuses eBay's VeRO program, article from February 18, 2008 on RealityBasedCommunity.net.

Taking Pictures of Our Product Is Copyright Infringement by Greg Beck of the Public Citizens Litigation Group.

Top Ten IP cases of 2002 posted by Greenblum & Bernstein, P.L.C. of Reston, Virginia.

QUALITY KING DISTRIBUTORS, INC. v. L'ANZARESEARCH INT'L syllabus of Supreme Court Decision.

Standing Up To Takedown Notices, By Catherine Rampell Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, October 19, 2007; Page D01. Article about people fighting back.

Stop Mucking up Copyright Law: A Federal Common Law of Contract as a Clean Exit Strategy, a 2003 paper by Llewellyn Joseph Gibbons, Associate Professor, College of Law, University of Toledo.

Subliminal Copyright Infringement, a 1998 case about de minimus use in a copyright case.

Universal: You don't own those promotional CDs we gave you by Nate Anderson, April 09, 2008. Article about lawsuit filed by Universal to stop eBay sales of promo CDs.

What Is a Derivative Work ... (continued) By David Goldberg and Robert J. Bernstein from September 19, 1996

Woods v. Bourne Co article discussing the 2nd District case that established a derivative has to be copyrightable.

More articles as they are found.

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