Podcast #1: December 30, 2010 [Audio clip: view full post to listen] In today’s podcast, we discuss the Federal Trade Commission’s recently issued privacy proposals. My guest is Karen Neuman, a founding partner of St. Ledger-Roty Neuman & Olson LLP, a Washington, DC law firm that focuses on regulation of information technologies and communications law, [...]

A Connecticut company suspended and then fired an employee for making disparaging comments on Facebook about the company and about her supervisor. Not in dispute is that the employee’s actions violated the company’s social media and other personnel policies, which (among other things) prohibited depicting the company ‘in any way’ on Facebook or other social [...]

Question: Under what circumstances can “fair use” support the editorial republishing of copyrighted photographs or other artworks in a magazine, book or electronic publication? Short answer: When the previously copyrighted works are the subject of the republishing. Fuller answer: An “editorial” republishing, almost by definition but with important caveats, satisfies the “fair use” test under [...]

Trademark registration generally trumps an unregistered (i.e. common law) use of the same trademark, so says @cyclaw in speaking about trademark registration in Canada. I had tweeted this #trademark question: What happens if you apply for – and get – US federal trademark registration, but later find that someone else has been using the same [...]

A little-appreciated requirement for trademark owners is a duty to monitor and police their trademarks.  This duty applies to owners of unregistered trademarks as much as federal registered marks, since registration is not necessary to claim many trademark rights. What types of activities must be monitored and policed?  Infringement and dilution.  Or in other words, [...]

I’ve set a monthly goal for November of taking tangible steps to make my company a “Socialprise” law firm.  What does that mean? Let me take inspiration from Dell Computers: “This is not about campaigns or initiatives,” said Richard Binhammer, senior manager, outreach communications and executive initiatives, social media and community, Dell. “It’s about adopting [...]

(Thanks to Neal Seth of Baker Hostetler and Michael Steger of Law Offices of Michael Steger for input on this question.) “Can I register a trademark for my brand?”  That’s typically the first question asked of a trademark lawyer.  The second question – not always asked – might be “Why would I want to?”  Or [...]

Yes, possibly the most important lawsuit since the sad case of the hamburger joint sued by the Washington white shoe law firm, playing now at a theater on Connecticut Avenue. Well, maybe the most important lawsuit in trademark’s hoary world. “Field of Screams” – Maryland version – is the annual Halloween fundraiser put on by [...]

FTC enforcement of its new blogger guidelines has involved typically high-profile actions against Anne Taylor LOFT (FTC ultimately taking no action) and Reverb Communications (for allegedly deceptive postings of positive reviews on iTunes for games produced by Reverb clients). While premature to draw any broad conclusions on the enforcement environment for the new rules, a philosophical [...]

What is the legal significance of a website’s privacy policy? That question lingers when reviewing such policies for legal compliance and for consistency with a company’s actual practices.  Problem is, lawsuits involving claims of breaches of privacy policies have failed even in cases of clear and egregious violations by the service provider, where there was [...]