Class on Sept 30

Class,

I regret that I am posting this so late, but class will be cancelled tomorrow. I am feeling very ill right now, and I’m sure I will be worse in the morning.

Questions on your Assignments

If you wish to ask me a question regarding the assignment, you need to CC all members of your firm.

No emails that fail to conform to that requirement will be acknowledged.

Also, as far as length goes — the right answer is “as long as it takes, but no longer”

However, if this letter is longer than two to three pages, you’re going to have some ’splainin to do.

Blog Posting Grading

Class,

I am closing blog posting grading and replacing it with your group assignments. As I’ve said in class, every class has a different dynamic, and my blog-participation program seems to have fallen dead with a thud in here. It isn’t that people aren’t commenting (you are for the most part) it is that the purpose of the assignment seems to have failed in here.

In prior classes, the comments became a source of out-of-class discussion and fleshing out of issues discussed in class. The comments in this class are insightful, intelligent, and well-composed. Nevertheless, for the most part, they seem to be overwhelmingly presented in the form of mini-case briefs.

Don’t take this the wrong way. I’m not closing the grading due to dissatisfaction with the collective performance. I’m closing them because at this rate, the blog comment portion of your grade will, I think, wind up merely stressing you out when you could spend your time concentrating on your written “firm assignments.”

Comments will still be open and welcome. Particularly insightful or helpful ones might count toward some degree of extra credit. However, you can scratch “post comment today” from your collective to-do-lists.

Writing Assignment – BEE-DAY EMPORIUM

Mr. Lemieux is an immigrant from Montreal. After a long career with the Charlestown Chiefs, Mr. Lemieux decided to settle in Orlando. However, when he was looking for an apartment here, he was horrified that none of the apartments had a bidet.

“This country is disgusting,” he said. “I must save my adopted home before all Americans get worms and die. This happens, you know, from not using the bidet. And when it happens, you feel not only sick, but ashamed.”

The next day, (Aug. 16, 1997) he drove to Canada and bought five bidets, and sold them on the side of the road on Colonial Avenue. He had a hand-painted sign that said BEE-DAY STORE. “I spelled it phonetically, because these English-speaking pigs, they don’t understand nothing.”

After he was done, he bathed in the Barry Law School fountain and went home with enough money to start his store — the BEE-DAY EMPORIUM. The BEE-DAY EMPORIUMs sell bidets and all of the plumbing supplies necessary to install them. It opened on Feb. 14, 1998 at its first location on Colonial Drive. However, it later moved to the Millennia Mall.

Lemieux now owns three stores, one in Orlando, one in Lakeland, and one in Key West. He wants to get a trademark registration for BEE-DAY EMPORIUM.

Please draft an opinion letter to him advising him on how you recommend that he proceed.

Due Sept. 23 in class. Remember to submit billing and your firm’s bonus point allocation.

New Survey

This survey was offered a few days ago, but I have isolated it for our class.

Please complete this by Thursday.

Click here.

Genericness Posts

Two great IP blogs, the TTABlog and Property, Intangible have postings on genericness.

Go to this post, “I’ll be a Monkey’s Uncle” Genericism Survey, and take the survey.

Then, read the TTABlog’s “So you think you know genericness?” See if you can guess the answers.

Post how many you got right. You won’t be graded on how well you did — but I may modify my lectures accordingly.

Also read pages 11-15 of this article.

Generic Terms for Pop/Soda/Coke/Tonic….

http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/308-the-pop-vs-soda-map/

The Firms

Per our discussion on Tuesday, I have broken you into 10 “firms” of three people.

Baker, Herold & McCormick
Tejada, Palubinsky & Patel
Blucher, Czajkowski & Stull
Roberts, Smith & Cary
Brown, Eidelson & Wyatt
Chrisner, Hampton & Keegan
Lea, Chidster & Rolf
Raymond, Desimone & Maselli
Papantoniou, Fedewa & Fischer
Pearson, Merrill & Howard

Group writing projects will be assigned in the near future.

The rules on group projects: The whole firm gets the same grade. However, there are four “bonus points” available on each project. The firm must determine how to apportion those points when the assignment is handed in.

The firm must determine how to apportion the bonuses. I will not arbitrate disputes, nor will I get involved in the bonus allocation unless I determine that there is something untoward happening in the bonus distribution process.

No lateral moves permitted.

Web 3.0

Go on to the USPTO website and find the two files for “Web 3.0″. Be prepared to discuss in class tomorrow.

“Trademark is the sleeping giant of intellectual property”

So says this article in the New York Times.