Technology, Law, Baseball, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Etc.
The opinions expressed in LawLawLaw do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Clock Tower Law Group, its employees, or the author. All your base are belong to us.
Doing Our Part To Fight The Recession: Clock Tower Law Group’s $45K Stimulus Program
We added 30 new clients during our seven-month FreeTrademarksForStartups.com promotion, which was a $1500 credit for the filing of a trademark application. We were glad to be able to help startups such as http://NewEnglandBreeze.com, http://Rail-Pod.com, and http://Costumezee.com. And even though new companies continue to be formed at a slower rate than last year, we are optimistic about the future!
Software Patents: Not Dead Yet?
This fall, the US Supreme Court will have its say on software patents in the Bilski case. Will the Supremes say definitively that software cannot be patented? That it can? If past rulings are a guide, then we’ll get something in-between, further muddying the legal waters. Software companies considering patents might want to consider (1) protecting their ideas with trade secrets, (2) following Google’s lead and filing design patents, or (3) filing provisional patent applications to get an “extra” year of patent-pending protection while the law settles down. Stay tuned.
Protecting Your Brands In The Age Of Social Media
Got a registered trademark and its dot-com domain name? Good start. Today, smart companies are also protecting their brands on rapidly growing social networking sites. Twitter finally issued a Twittersquatting policy, and Facebook jumped on the vanity URL bandwagon. It costs 20 times more to fix problems like Twittersquatting than it does to prevent them. So an ounce of prevention really IS worth a pound of cure. Here’s my prevention prescription: learn how to read blogs with Google Reader, read up on Twitter, register your typo domain names, and pick brands that are easy to comprehend when read over the phone.
But Daddy, It’s Soxtober!
So said my 11-year-old daughter when the Red Sox were swept by the Angels in the ALDS. “Believe it or not,” I replied, “the Red Sox don’t win the World Series every year.” So to get you through the offseason, here’s some interesting reading on baseball patents and why curveballs confuse batters. Just wait ’til next year!
Client News
Congratulations to Kayak for winning a Webby Award for Travel Site of the Year. And congrats to BzzAgent for launching BzzScapes, user-generated brand communities. See? Your brands are everywhere!
Just For Fun
Thing 1: I have nothing to say.
Thing 2: You should blog about it.
Erik’s Life In Links: Boston, Maine, MIT, Rautaruukki (in Finland), BBN, Air Force, Cayman Systems, “The Legal List” (and my 15 minutes in Wired and The New York Times), Maine Law, FPLC IPSI, LCP, Heels.com, ALM, “nothing.but.net,” Inherent.Com, RedStreet, Colorado, Verio, Acton, Clock Tower Law Group, MCats (rockin’ on for our kids).
