Before coming to law school, I knew close to nothing about Intellectual Property (IP). But, I quickly realized that IP law can be interesting. In my previous post, I explained how I became interested in IP. In this post, I will share some fun facts that I have learned about IP in the past year. Continue reading “6 Fun Facts About IP: From Colors to Smells!”
Fall is here which means stores and front stoops are full of all things pumpkin! Taking IP this Fall has made me realize that many great fall items may have some kind of intellectual property (IP) protection. That’s been one of my favorite parts of learning more about IP, the realization that it truly impacts all areas of our lives. To help prove my point I rounded up some of the most interesting pumpkin related patents I could find. Continue reading “Eight Great Pumpkin Patents”
Intellectual property (IP) law probably isn’t the first thing you think of when you think of Harry Houdini. One probably envisions dramatic performances involving straightjackets, water barrels, or sleight of hand illusions. However, Houdini’s greatest trick may have been leveraging IP to his personal advantage.
While many know of the magician for his impressive feats of escape, the Hungarian-born immigrant was also an avid inventor. Harry Houdini, born Erik Weitz, came of age during the Industrial Revolution. As a product of his time, Houdini had high esteem for feats of mechanical engineering. This, along with a few other incentives discussed later, led him to patent the machines he created for his magic performances.
He designed created new machines that would dazzle his audiences with exciting performances. Patenting his inventions served a few important functions for Houdini. But before describing those functions, let’s first explain how patents work and what they do.
Continue reading “Was Harry Houdini’s Most Famous Trick Understanding IP Law?”
Which of the following is NOT a federally registered trademark?
Which of the following is NOT a federally registered trademark?
Can Intellectual Property Protect Board Games?
I love board games and have been playing a lot of Settlers of Catan online during the pandemic. I use a site called colonist.io, which is an offshoot, unaffiliated version of the Settlers of Catan game. During my Intellectual Property (IP) class with Professor Ho earlier this year, I wondered how IP rights extend to board games. When we tend to think of IP, we might think of cool technological inventions for patents or Disney’s Mickey Mouse for copyright. IP generally relates to protecting human created products, names, and expressions, and can give its owner rights to protect these.
Continue reading “Stealing Settlers? How IP factors into Online Games”
TikTok has quickly taken over the internet since its global launch just a few years ago. You have probably heard of this app, which allows users to create short videos. Despite being released globally in August of 2018, it is now one of the most-downloaded apps of the 2010s. But concerns of copyright infringement emanate throughout the platform. A copyright is a collection of rights that belong to someone who creates an original work of authorship, such as a book, song, painting, or sculpture. These rights include the exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivatives of the creative work. The person or entity to which these rights belong is referred to as the copyright owner. Copyright infringement occurs when a copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, performed, publicly displayed, or made into a derivative work without the permission of the copyright owner. So, what are some of the copyrighted works that TikTok is infringing? Let’s find out…
Intellectual Property (“IP”) is everywhere. IP laws cover things we interact with daily, like media, technology and even health care through patents, trademarks and copyrights. One of the reasons IP is so interesting is that despite its big impact it tends to be behind the scenes enough that many probably don’t even realize its influence. This post highlights some of these interesting behind-the-scenes tidbits of copyright law.
Continue reading “IP Did you know? Behind the Scenes of Copyright in Pop Culture”
I started telling people I was going to law school just about one year ago. One of the first questions everybody asked was whether I was going into IP law. I had been working in software development for several years, so the assumption made sense given my technology background. I had other plans though.
Continue reading “IP – Surprisingly Relevant to Public Health”
How has patent law affected the bourbon industry? Faced with ample free time as a result of the stay-at-home order during the COVID-19 pandemic, this thought popped into my head while I was reminiscing about my past vacation to Kentucky’s renowned Bourbon Trail. Continue reading “A Toast to Patents”
As a first-year law student, you learn almost immediately that your grades are extremely important. A strong GPA is undeniably one of the main criteria employers will use to distinguish job applicants. However, I learned this year that it’s also very important to begin building your professional network and making connections in the legal world as early as you can. I had the opportunity to attend several networking events this year, where I met practicing attorneys with a lot of valuable insight to share. Each time I left feeling glad I decided to attend, even if it meant I had to stay up a little later to finish my Torts reading.
Continue reading “Connections, Insights, and Valuable Lessons: The Importance of Networking”
