Defendants served with a summons and complaint need to choose the right strategy at the beginning of the lawsuit so that they might end the litigation sooner.  In two recent cases, plaintiffs’ failures to bring their case in the proper court led to dismissal of cases against defendants. In a federal case, brought in the…

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Albert Prince has once again proven that – for better or worse – he is the epitome of an “appropriation artist.”  You may recall that I had some misgivings about the 2nd Circuit’s determination in Cariou v. Prince that Prince did not infringe upon plaintiff’s copyrights by making so-called“transformative use” of entire photographs that he incorporated on canvasses and…

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In my humble opinion, the decision in Cariou v. Prince, Case No. 11 CV 1197 (2nd Circuit, 4/25/13)is wrongly decided.  Self-proclaimed “appropriation artist” Richard Prince took a book of photographs by Patrick Cariou, blew them up to canvas size, and in most works, slightly altered the Rastafarian subject, painting blue lozenges over the subject’s eyes or pasting…

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In my humble opinion, the decision in Cariou v. Prince, Case No. 11 CV 1197 (2nd Circuit, 4/25/13)is wrongly decided.  Self-proclaimed “appropriation artist” Richard Prince took a book of photographs by Patrick Cariou, blew them up to canvas size, and in most works, slightly altered the Rastafarian subject, painting blue lozenges over the subject’s eyes or pasting…

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A friend wanted to file a U.S. trademark application, but knew about a similar trademark that is used exclusively outside the U.S.  Should she rush to file an application here, or would she be preempted by a foreign trademark registration? The answer, of course, is maybe.   Section 44(d) of the Lanham Act, also known as…

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Sometimes, at the very beginning of a lawsuit, the plaintiff needs to prevent the disbursement of assets that effectively would frustrate the ultimate object of a lawsuit.  In the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 65(b) provides for the court issuing, without notice, a temporary restraining order (T.R.O.).   To that end, we recently spoke with…

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Don’t Pay Personal Expenses From The Corporate Account.  Keep your business accounts separate from your home accounts. Don’t commingle assets. Using the corporation as your “personal piggy bank” is the first step to becoming vulnerable to a creditor “piercing the veil” of your corporate or LLC protection.  Pay yourself a reasonable salary or draw; then pay for…

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It’s important to line “all your ducks in a row” to make branding effective.   The ducks of branding include registration of the copyrights, trademarks and service marks that are embodied in the branding.   Your logo design and branding texts can and should be protected by copyright registration.  An association’s name, acronym, logo, slogans, and even…

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At lunch the other day, a friend said that he was about to attend a conference call with a potential client in an industry in which his firm did not have any direct experience.  However, he was going to include in the call another person who had lots of relevant experience and, if the call…

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As some of you may have experienced, employers can invest $5,000 to $20,000 in costs associated with obtaining an immigration visa for a promising new recruit, but some unscrupulous employees quit after working only a day or two, and port their visa to another employer.   I recently spoke at a panel discussion sponsored by Immigration…

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