Lisa P. Ramsey

What’s Missing From Your Favorite Chocolate Bar? It May Be Chocolate.

From "milk chocolate" to "chocolate candy": why your favorite candy bar might taste a little different now (gift link)

Alston & Bird Sanctioned $10K For LinkedIn Juror Research
www.law360.com/articles/240...

Cameo Sues OpenAI Over Sora Feature With Same Name - Law360 Cameo, a company that creates personalized celebrity videos, has sued OpenAI over the launch of a feature in its Sora video generator also called Cameo that allows users to create videos with AI versi...

Cameo Sues OpenAI Over Sora Feature With Same Name
www.law360.com/articles/240...

Content Warning The story of how TikTok changed everything you see online.

A few weeks ago I sat down with Simon Adler at @radiolab.bsky.social and recorded for a few hours about the evolution of speech online and where we are now.

I was honored he turned our chat into a stand-alone episode.

Have a listen.

radiolab.org/podcast/cont...

Acquired | About Every company has a story. Acquired goes behind the scenes of the biggest tech IPOs and acquisitions of all time. Hosted by Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal.

I just found out about this podcast (or “conversational audiobook”) which does a deep dive into tech companies and various other interesting topics, and plan to listen to more episodes. Info is here: www.acquired.fm/about

Google: The AI Company Podcast Episode · Acquired · 10/06/2025 · 4h 7m

If you are interested in the history of AI (with a focus on Google), I highly recommend this podcast by Acquired. It is over four hours long and full of interesting details.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

Background This is a “Schedule A” case in which Plaintiff sued 436 defendants, including Lightzey, for violating Plaintiff’s trademark rights by selling infringing light fixtures online via third-party platforms or their own websites. As is typical in Schedule A cases, Plaintiff promptly moved ex parte for a temporary restraining order (“TRO”) freezing any online accounts that the defendants used to conduct business, including Lightzey’s PayPal account. The Court granted the motion and entered a sealed TRO on May 28, 2024. Lightzey contacted Plaintiff to ask for a copy of the sealed court documents and any evidence supporting Plaintiff’s claims. Plaintiff provided two screenshots showing an infringing product in an online shopping cart on Lightzey’s website, but the screenshots did not show that the purchase of that product had been completed. These two screenshots were accompanied by a third, which showed that Lightzey had confirmed an online order for purchase and shipment to Illinois, but this order was for a non-infringing product, a candle holder, not the infringing light fixture shown in the other two screenshots. Lightzey examined its sales records and determined that it had made no sales of any infringing product in Illinois or indeed anywhere else in the United States.

Just learned about this decision, currently on appeal to the Seventh Circuit. Judge Alonso denied a #ScheduleA defendant's motion for fees in what appears to be a "jurisdiction by shopping cart" situation: www.scribd.com/document/904...

DadBod Apparel LLC v. Hildawn Design LLC, et al. Trademark case filed on August 1, 2025 in the Ohio Northern District Court

The case is DadBod Apparel LLC v. Hildawn Design LLC et al., No. 5:25-cv-01599, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio: dockets.justia.com/docket/ohio/...

Accused infringers that display such terms on the outside surface of apparel should be able to defend trademark infringement claims on the ground these are merely informational/expressive uses of the phrase and the uses are aesthetically functional (see the Lettuce Turnip the Beet case).

The USPTO should refuse to register such marks (and words like DadBod) on the ground the phrases fail to function as marks and/or are aesthetically functional for these goods since phrases like this are typically featured on the front or back of the apparel, and not just on hangtags or labels.

'GirlDad' TM Fight Expands To 'GirlMom,' 'BoyDad,' 'BoyMom' - Law360 A trademark battle over the "GirlDad" trademark expanded to the marks "GirlMom," "BoyDad" and "BoyMom" as an apparel company accused a rival of infringing all four in Ohio federal court.

'GirlDad' TM Fight Expands To 'GirlMom,' 'BoyDad,' 'BoyMom' - The government should not register or protect trademark rights in such terms for T-shirts and other types of expressive merchandise, as this chills free speech and harms fair competition.
www.law360.com/articles/239...

John Tehranian on Copyright & Inequality | Ipse Dixit

I just posted Ipse Dixit #830, featuring John Tehranian of Southwestern Law discussing his new book "The Secret Life of Copyright
Intellectual Property and Inequality in the Age of AI" from @universitypress.cambridge.org. shows.acast.com/ipse-dixit/e...

…perhaps we need new USPTO procedures that allow the public to ask the USPTO to re-examine trademark applications/registrations like this that could harm fair competition and free expression?

…on the ground they are generic for the goods, merely descriptive without secondary meaning, and/or merely informational matter that fails to function as a mark. If SCOTUS agrees with the Federal Circuit that members of the public like Prof. Curtin do not have standing to challenge such marks,…

RAPUNZEL should not be registered as a trademark for dolls - no one should have the exclusive trademark right to use this name in connection with dolls. Regardless of whether you think consumers should have standing to challenge the registration of such marks, they should be refused registration…

Professor Curtin Files Petition for Certiorari in RAPUNZEL Consumer Standing Case
thettablog.blogspot.com/2025/10/prof...

Huge thanks to @mikescarcella.bsky.social for linking to the UNCRUSTABLES trade dress complaint here: www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...

Shall we all take a look?

What Happened When AI Came for Craft Beer A prominent beer competition introduced an AI-judging tool without warning. The judges and some members of the wider brewing industry were pissed.

What Happened When AI Came for Craft Beer
www.404media.co/what-happene...

Takeaways From Ninth Circuit’s Revival Of Trader Joe’s Trademark Infringement Suit Against Independent Union Over Labor-Branded Merchandise The Ninth Circuit’s recent resurrection of Trader Joe’s trademark infringement suit over an independent union’s sale of apparel, mugs, tote bags, and…

Takeaways From Ninth Circuit’s Revival Of Trader Joe’s Trademark Infringement Suit Against Independent Union Over Labor-Branded Merchandise
www.lexology.com/library/deta...

OpenAI’s New Video App Is Jaw-Dropping (for Better and Worse)

"Almost instantly, Sora’s early-access users were spinning up videos made with copyrighted material plucked from pop culture. (We saw more “Rick and Morty” and Pikachu videos than we would have liked.)"
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/t...

Trademark Basics Boot Camp, Module 1: Fundamentals A must for any new trademark owner. In this module, we’ll cover definitions and types of trademarks, benefits of federal registration, selecting a trademark, filing and registration, and how to find h...

The USPTO is putting on several free webinars about trademark law as part of its Trademark Basics Boot Camp - the first one is on Tuesday, October 7. Information is at this link:
www.uspto.gov/about-us/eve...

The answer to your question is complicated, and that’s why I am curious what other trademark experts think about this issue assuming the subject matter is no longer protected by copyright law. Such TM applications might be refused on various grounds I discussed in my post (eg, false association).

Companies can claim trademark rights in words and symbols in the public domain that they use as a source-identifying mark for goods and services. If such marks are registered, the trademark registrant takes it out of the public domain with regard to the products listed in the registration.

. . . and may be using this image or the name in other ways it claims are a trademark use; and possibly on failure to function grounds depending on how the proposed mark is used by the trademark applicant in a certain context with the goods or services.

The USPTO could refuse such a mark on false association grounds in Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act; on likelihood of confusion grounds under Section 2(d) since Disney is using a short clip of Steamboat Willie in connection with its entertainment services . . .

Martin Senftleben has also written about this issue in his excellent book The Copyright/Trademark Interface and argues that governments should not register cultural heritage works.

I refer to it as "inherently valuable expression" in my upcoming book and argue that proposed marks consisting of creative works (or their titles or character names associated with them) should not be registered or, if they are registered, that the registrants should have a narrow scope of rights.

At INTA, I took the position that regardless of whether you think the artist who created an artistic work or the former copyright owner should be allowed to register such an image or phrase, random people should not be able to obtain exclusive trademark rights in this type of subject matter.

If they advertise it enough, or get publicity through filing a lawsuit like this, people might start to associate this subject matter with the trademark applicant (and not just Disney). We talked about this issue on my professors panel at the 2024 INTA annual meeting.

Trademark folks on BlueSky: Do you think the government should allow this law firm (or anyone else unrelated to Disney) to claim trademark rights in an image from, or short clip of, the public domain Steamboat Willie or the phrase "Steamboat Willie" for goods or services?