Category Archives: Intellectual Property Law

Royalties and Copyright Standing

Employers benefit from the labor of their employees in many ways beyond the day to day tasks assigned that employee. Copyrightable work produced within the scope of employment belongs to the employer as work for hire. Any other intellectual property … Continue reading

The Candy Trademark Saga

By this point, nearly everyone has an opinion on whether or not King should be able to register a trademark for dictionary terms like “candy” and “saga.” This is, in part, because both words have long histories in the video … Continue reading

Beware the Berner Convention: Terms of Use and Social Media

Nearly everyone uses social media. It is difficult find people who do not. There are many platforms with different concepts and target audiences. But across them all, there are questions about privacy, copyright, and contracts. This arose when a makeshift … Continue reading

Don’t Forget to Read the Manual: Apple v. Samsung and the Challenge of Jury Instructions

A jury has enormous responsibilities. The judge decides all questions of law, using their legal expertise to interpret the problem presented by the case and determine which law or laws apply. The jury’s job is to resolve all questions of … Continue reading

New Law Review Article

I just had a new article published in Cybaris, the Intellectual Property Law Review at the William Mitchell College of Law.  The piece is titled “Intellectual Property 2.0: Revisiting the Copyright and Trademark System for a Digital Reality.”It’s available for … Continue reading

Your Nostalgia, While Charming, Is Illegal: the Problem with Fan Remakes

Some experiences are hard to reproduce. Things come along at a unique moment in your life and make an indelible mark on your brain. They become a standard by which you measure every other piece of art in that genre. … Continue reading

Tween Pop Stars, Cartoon Animals, Parody, and the Right of Publicity

At Law of the Game, we pride ourselves on being fans of popular culture, games, and terrible puns. Imagine our glee when the following story emerged. Justin Bieber’s legal team is embroiled in a lawsuit with app developer RC3 over … Continue reading

Zynga vs Everybody: The Battle Over Online Game Intellectual Property

As we have pointed out before, it is always useful to examine any game industry lawsuits by considering what they say about the business of buying and selling games. The longer you have been playing, the more you know how … Continue reading

More on Kim Dotcom and the Fight Over Cyberlockers

In late January, Law of the Game took a look at Kim Dotcom and Megaupload. Bloomberg Businessweek released a superb profile of the file-sharing baron. It is worth checking out. The authors fill in Dotcom’s back story, and what a … Continue reading