FUCT Marks are Allowed

According to statue, someone could not register a trademark if it “[c]onsists of or comprises immoral, deceptive, or scandalous matter; or matter which may disparage or falsely suggest a connection with persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or bring them into contempt, or disrepute; or a geographical indication which, when used on or in connection … Read more

Lola To The Rescue

I was supposed to write the blog post for last week. You may be thinking, “Last week? What was last week’s post?” Or you may be thinking, “We were missing photos of Lola!” Because, yeah, my post last week was a photo of my dog sniffing a can with an OGS can coozie on it. … Read more

Dancing the Fortnite Away

The Copyright Act provides for copyright protection in “pantomimes and choreographic works”, but they have to be fixed in tangible form. According to the Copyright Office, “choreography is the composition and arrangement of a related series of dance movements and patterns organized into a coherent whole”, and pantomime is “the art of imitating, presenting, or … Read more

Fixin’ To Dance

You may have heard that copyright exists in a work as soon as it is created. And you saw a lawyer twitch when you said that. It’s because we want to correct you, but also we don’t want to spoil the cocktail party and get kicked out before the bacon wrapped appetizers arrive. First, whatever … Read more

Justify Your Existence

Back in the day, when we used read things in hard copy, there was a feature (in The AV Club, I think) that demanded that bands they reviewed to “Justify your existence.” The bands had to explain why they mattered; why should the customer should listen to their music, buy their CD (yeah, I just … Read more

I’ll Grant You That: DATCP’s Buy Local, Buy Wisconsin Grant

The Buy Local, Buy Wisconsin Grants is a competitive grant program put on by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (“DATCP”) that funds local food efforts to increase the sale of Wisconsin-grown or produced food products.  The grants help farms and businesses more efficiently produce, process, market and distribute food in local … Read more

Inked Up for Copyright

We have previously discussed that ownership of copyright defaults to the creator of work and that someone else can’t just use or duplicate the work without the owner’s permission. So, it wouldn’t be surprising to those who read our blog regularly to hear that some creators are upset that a party has taken their works … Read more

Miles To Go Before We Sleep

January 1, 2019, was a big day. I mean, for one thing, our firm turned 3 years old. No more terrible twos for us! Second, and perhaps with more widespread impact, it was the first time in 20 years that published copyrighted works entered into the public domain in the United States. We have previously … Read more