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Rick’s Article, “Will Prof. Nimmer’s Change of Heart Matter?” Published in JETLaw
May 7, 2013 by Rick Sanders | Category: Recent News
The Vanderbilt School of Law’s Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law (“JETLaw” to the cognoscenti) has just published Rick’s article, “Will Professor Nimmer’s Change of Heart Matter?” The article deals with a complete reversal of position in the leading and most influential treatise on copyright law, Nimmer on Copyright, on the issue of whether merely making available for sale or other distribution unauthorized copyrighted goods constitutes infringement of the distribution right. This issue, once very obscure, has risen in prominence in file-sharing cases, where rights holders are usually only able to prove actual distribution of a handful of sometimes thousands of unauthorized files on the alleged file-sharer’s computer. Rights holders would prefer that they need prove only that the unauthorized files were made available for download, but courts have generally (but not exclusively) held that proof of actual distributions is needed. The three leading copyright treatises used to concur with those courts, and were often cited in support of that position.
Nimmer on Copyright, however, in a break with the other two leading treatises, now takes the position that merely making unauthorized copyrighted goods available for distribution does, in fact, infringe on the distribution right. Rick’s article looks … Read More»
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Hear Rick’s Mellifluous Voice on Planet Money Episode on Digital Economy
No, really, he sounds pretty good: Planet Money Episode 449: The Hidden Digital Wealth in Your Pocket. (If you have no patience at all and can’t wait to hear Rick’s mellifluous voice, his on-air quote starts around the 4:40 mark. But you really should listen the whole thing.)
You can read Rick’s blog posts on ReDigi’s attempt to create a market for “used” digital downloads that got Planet Money’s attention, or just cut to the chase with his latest on the district court’s ruling that ReDigi violates copyright in doing so (if you can stand all the mixed cake metaphors).
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Rick to Moderate ABA Panel on New Top-level Domain Names
On Thursday, April 4, Rick will be moderating a panel on top-level domain names at the upcoming ABA IP Spring Meeting, titled “Is that Domain .Yours or .Mine?: Coping with the New Top Level Domain Names.” You may have heard that (maybe, we’ll see) the “dot-com” era is over, because from now on, we’ll be able to choose from hundreds, maybe even thousands of new generic top-level domain names (“gTLDs”). But there will be teething pains. Oh, will there be teething pains. Like, what happens if the new gTLD happens to be confusingly similar to your mark? (Um, not very “generic”!) And what if more than one application for a new gTLD? (There can only be ONE!).
Here’s the summary of what we’ll be covering:
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) published a list of over 1,900 applications for new top level domains. Some large brand owners applied for domain names, which mirror their trademarks, but many have not. In addition, there were domain names, such as .app and .inc that received multiple applicants. Given these results, the dispute resolution procedure during evaluation is of vital importance to brand owners. This program will review the status of
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Tara is interviewed by Compliance Week after the Zappos Unzipped Blog Post
February 5, 2013 by Tara Aaron | Category: Recent News
Tara was interviewed by Joe Mont at Compliance Week for an article in this week’s issue entitled “Terms of Use Agreements Pose New Reputational Risks,” in the wake of the Zappos.com TOU debacle and Tara’s blog post about it. Tara and two other lawyers from around the country discuss the pitfalls of cutting and pasting Terms of Use from other companies, or not paying careful attention to what your company’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies say. You can read the article here.
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@Law Publishes Rick’s Article on Oracle v. Google
You might recall Rick’s epic 6-part blog about the Oracle v. Google case and what it teaches about copyright protection in software. A formal (and condensed) version of those posts has been published by @Law in its Winter 2012–13 edition as an article: “The Limits of Copyright Protection in Software After Oracle v. Google.” @Law is published by NALS, which is the national association of legal professionals (the “S” is from long-ago when it was an association of legal secretaries, but as responsibilities have drifted from old-style legal secretaries to new-style paralegals and junior associates, that term is under-inclusive now). You might remember @Law by its previous name, The Docket (which is now an e-zine published by NALS). Here’s the first paragraph:When Oracle sued fellow technology giant Google for using the “structure, sequence and organization” of Oracle’s Java API in Google’s Android mobile operating system, Oracle revived a debate about the proper scope of copyright protection for software as old that protection itself.1 There was no question that Google did not literally copy the API but did copy its organization. There was also no question that generally software’s structure can be copyrighted. The question was when.
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Aaron | Sanders lawyers honored by peer review ratings services
Super Lawyers® has named Tara Aaron to its list of Mid-South Rising Stars for 2012. Super Lawyers is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The selection process is multi-phased and includes independent research, peer nominations and peer evaluations. Only five percent of attorneys are named to the Mid-South Super Lawyers list each year.
Last month, Rick Sanders was named a Best Lawyer in America® for Copyright and Trademark. This was Rick’s second award in two years from the oldest peer-review publication in the legal profession.
Aaron | Sanders is thrilled to be able to announce these honors!
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Rick Is Named a “Best Lawyer” Again, This Time in Copyright & Trademark, Too
Some of you might remember that, last year, Rick was named a “Best Lawyer” by the Best Lawyers in America folks, in the field of “Litigation—Intellectual Property.” It’s a nice honor, and we appreciate it! Well, this year, Rick was again named a “Best Lawyer,” but this year, it’s not only in the field of “Litigation —Intellectual Property,” but also the fields of “Copyright Law” and “Trademark Law.” So there you go! Congratulations!
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BarCamp 2012 Speaker Up! Tara gave presentation tips to would-be speakers.
Last night at the Yazoo Brewery, BarCamp 2012 held its annual Speaker Up! event to encourage members of the technology community to come and present on their latest project or passion at BarCamp, which will be held in Nashville on October 20th at the Tequila Cowboy bar. (Tequila? Breweries? Are we sensing a theme here?) Tara and her good friends and conference masters Jacques Woodcock and Cal Evans talked to a bar full of potential presenters about what it’s like to present at a Camp. Developers, designers, techies – watch the video from last night’s event and get inspired to come speak at BarCamp 2012!
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“Overlapping Intellectual Property Rights” now available. Tara Aaron is now a published author.
Not long after we opened the firm, Tara got an invitation to co-author a book entitled “Overlapping Intellectual Property Rights,” to be published by Oxford University Press. Two dozen intellectual property practitioners and professors from around the world collaborated on this project. Tara was able to deepen her understanding of U.S. trademark law, and learn a lot about the book industry in the process. We are proud to announce that “Overlapping Intellectual Property Rights” has now been published in the U.K. and will publish very soon in the United States. Tara is thrilled to finally go from being an “almost published” author to the real thing!
The book contains sixteen chapters – each takes a careful look at two aspects of intellectual property (copyright, trademark, patent, trade secrets, unfair competition, and all manner of subcategories of each) and explains the intersection of those two aspects, both natural and problematic. It will be an excellent addition to the bookshelf for anyone who regularly practices in or otherwise encounters intellectual property issues, particularly with an international bent. Tara (and certainly all of her co-authors) hope that you will find it to be a useful and even enjoyable addition to your reference materials. … Read More»
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We’ve Moved!
We truly enjoyed our time and our colleagues at the Boardroom in Green Hills, but we could not be more excited about our new space at the Trolley Barns at Rolling Mill Hills! We finally completed our move on Monday. Sure, there are still boxes everywhere and we’re still trying to work out fundamentals like mail and trash, but we probably aren’t the first new business in town to suffer these inconveniences. The space is beautiful and we love our neighbors EMMA, Cell Journalist, and the Arts and Business Council. We look forward to hosting you here soon. Plus, our lot is great overflow parking for CREMA.
Our new address, for your records, is 11 Lea Avenue, Suite 606, Nashville, TN 37210. Rick’s number is 615-734-1188, and Tara’s is 615-734-1122. Our fax number is 615-250-9807. Our email addresses and website are still the same – www.aaronsanderslaw.com, rick@aaronsanderslaw.com, and tara@aaronsanderslaw.com. Keep in touch!
