A “SAD” New Reality in Trademark Legislation
Last year, I took an incredibly exciting class in the realm of intellectual property, called the “IP Colloquium.” It’s a class where Loyola University Chicago School of Law and Chicago-Kent School of Law professors come together to bring in world-renowned speakers from across the country to teach us, students, about issues in the IP world. These issues range from every topic in IP; including trade secrets, copyright, patents, and trademarks. One specific speaker piqued my interest – his name is Eric Goldman. He is a law professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and focuses his research and teachings on IP, Internet Law, and Advertising Law.
Professor Goldman gave us a first look at his article “A SAD New Category of Abusive Intellectual Property Litigation,” which shed light on a newly discovered IP problem mainly happening in my own backyard – the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the federal trial court in Chicago. The paper, along with his presentation, explained how famous brands and performers are overwhelming the court by suing hundreds of defendants for trademark infringement. Before we get into what the “SAD Scheme” actually is, let’s first go through what trademarks are, how a party infringes a trademark, and where the “SAD” name came from.
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