The Supreme Court Performs the Right Notes for Dish in Aereo

In American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. v. Aereo, Inc., the Supreme Court addressed whether a company publicly performs copyrighted works when it allocates separate antennas on its property to customers who individually decide what shows they each want to watch. This case was hotly debated because it provided a new opportunity for the Court to identify the responsible actors when copyrighted materials are transmitted over the Internet. Unfortunately, the Court ruled against Aereo without clearly articulating governing standards that might inform future decisions, relying instead on what the dissent called a looks-like-cable-TV approach. The deficiency has already provided additional ammunition for Fox Broadcasting Company to sue Dish Network over certain features that the satellite television provider proudly promotes to customers. This Article articulates some concrete benchmarks the Court could have used to substantiate its decision that would have highlighted the weaknesses in Fox\u27s latest copyright claims against Dish

The Scoop on Betty Boop: A Proposal to Limit Overreaching Trademarks

The Ninth Circuit temporarily stunned marketers in 2011 when it ruled that Betty Boop did not serve as a trademark on merchandise due to aesthetic functionality and because protection would conflict with the copyright system. The opinion endangered merchandising rights in all trademarks and jeopardized the duration of trademark rights in images and media characters. The court soon withdrew the decision and substituted it with one that denied protection on technical grounds, leaving the controversies for another day. This article demonstrates that the court’s apprehension about copyrights made sense, and proposes a new approach to distinguish when copyrighted images might also serve as trademarks

Can the PTO Find Its Way with Jesus?

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Identification of genetic variants associated with Huntington's disease progression: a genome-wide association study

Background Huntington's disease is caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the huntingtin gene, HTT. Age at onset has been used as a quantitative phenotype in genetic analysis looking for Huntington's disease modifiers, but is hard to define and not always available. Therefore, we aimed to generate a novel measure of disease progression and to identify genetic markers associated with this progression measure. Methods We generated a progression score on the basis of principal component analysis of prospectively acquired longitudinal changes in motor, cognitive, and imaging measures in the 218 indivduals in the TRACK-HD cohort of Huntington's disease gene mutation carriers (data collected 2008–11). We generated a parallel progression score using data from 1773 previously genotyped participants from the European Huntington's Disease Network REGISTRY study of Huntington's disease mutation carriers (data collected 2003–13). We did a genome-wide association analyses in terms of progression for 216 TRACK-HD participants and 1773 REGISTRY participants, then a meta-analysis of these results was undertaken. Findings Longitudinal motor, cognitive, and imaging scores were correlated with each other in TRACK-HD participants, justifying use of a single, cross-domain measure of disease progression in both studies. The TRACK-HD and REGISTRY progression measures were correlated with each other (r=0·674), and with age at onset (TRACK-HD, r=0·315; REGISTRY, r=0·234). The meta-analysis of progression in TRACK-HD and REGISTRY gave a genome-wide significant signal (p=1·12 × 10−10) on chromosome 5 spanning three genes: MSH3, DHFR, and MTRNR2L2. The genes in this locus were associated with progression in TRACK-HD (MSH3 p=2·94 × 10−8 DHFR p=8·37 × 10−7 MTRNR2L2 p=2·15 × 10−9) and to a lesser extent in REGISTRY (MSH3 p=9·36 × 10−4 DHFR p=8·45 × 10−4 MTRNR2L2 p=1·20 × 10−3). The lead single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in TRACK-HD (rs557874766) was genome-wide significant in the meta-analysis (p=1·58 × 10−8), and encodes an aminoacid change (Pro67Ala) in MSH3. In TRACK-HD, each copy of the minor allele at this SNP was associated with a 0·4 units per year (95% CI 0·16–0·66) reduction in the rate of change of the Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale (UHDRS) Total Motor Score, and a reduction of 0·12 units per year (95% CI 0·06–0·18) in the rate of change of UHDRS Total Functional Capacity score. These associations remained significant after adjusting for age of onset. Interpretation The multidomain progression measure in TRACK-HD was associated with a functional variant that was genome-wide significant in our meta-analysis. The association in only 216 participants implies that the progression measure is a sensitive reflection of disease burden, that the effect size at this locus is large, or both. Knockout of Msh3 reduces somatic expansion in Huntington's disease mouse models, suggesting this mechanism as an area for future therapeutic investigation

Trademark Protection of Live Animals: The Bleat Goes On, 10 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 715 (2011)

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the owner of a Swedish restaurant was suing other businesses for violating its registered trademark, which surprisingly consists of live goats on a grass roof. The PTO and the courts have steadily enlarged the set of trade dress features that might serve as trademarks, and there is no reason, in theory, to treat live animals differently. Nevertheless, the PTO likely made a mistake in this instance when it agreed to register the mark. This article evaluates the requirements for protecting trade dress with trademarks, and explains why a Swedish restaurant should not have exclusive rights to put goats on a roof

Trademark Protection of Live Animals: The Bleat Goes On, 10 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 715 (2011)

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the owner of a Swedish restaurant was suing other businesses for violating its registered trademark, which surprisingly consists of live goats on a grass roof. The PTO and the courts have steadily enlarged the set of trade dress features that might serve as trademarks, and there is no reason, in theory, to treat live animals differently. Nevertheless, the PTO likely made a mistake in this instance when it agreed to register the mark. This article evaluates the requirements for protecting trade dress with trademarks, and explains why a Swedish restaurant should not have exclusive rights to put goats on a roof