Mass Law Blog
Intellectual property and business litigation, Massachusetts and nationallyWritten by humans
Lee Gesmer’s Mass Law Blog began in 2005, and contains almost 600 posts. The site initially focused on Massachusetts law, but today it follows business and intellectual property law nation-wide. The site is hosted by Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a law firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm represents startup and established companies in the areas of litigation, transactions (including financings, mergers and acquisitions), IP rights, taxation, employment law, standards consortia, business counseling and open source development projects and foundations. You can find a summary of the firm’s services here. To learn how Gesmer Updegrove can help you, contact: Lee Gesmer
No, You May Not Copyright a Chicken Sandwich
One of the hoariest chestnuts of copyright law is that a recipe is not copyrightable. Seemingly unaware of this - or in outright defiance of the law - the plaintiffs in Lorenzana v. South American Restaurants Corp. argued to the contrary. Specifically, the plaintiffs claimed copyright in a "Pechu Sandwich" recipe consisting of"fried chicken breast patty, lettuce, tomato, American cheese, and garlic mayonnaise on a bun." The complaint contained no allegation that the "recipe" for the sandwich...
Initial Interest Confusion – It’s Back
[Note: The decision discussed below turned out to be short-lived. On October 21, 2015, less than three months after its publication dated, the decision was withdrawn and a new opinion was issued, upholding the district court's ruling that Amazon's search results did not violate the Lanham Act. ] In an unusual decision the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that the Amazon search results page for an "MTM Special Ops" watch -- a product Amazon does not sell -- has the potential to violate...
Slides from MIT Copyright Class (3/13/2015)
Stephen Lyons, a friend and attorney at Klieman & Lyons, asked me to guest-lecture the Law & Technology class he is teaching at MIT this semester. I only had one class period, so I decided to focus on the 2014 Supreme Court Aereo case. Although the slides are not "stand-alone" they are somewhat self-explanatory. I am sharing them below. MIT Copyright Seminar 3-13-2015 (Reduced File Size) by gesmer
Will the Supreme Court Take Google’s Appeal in the Android-Java Copyright Case?
The fact that the Supreme Court has asked the Obama Administration (via the Office of the Solicitor General) to comment on Google's application for certiorari in Oracle v. Google* has focused renewed interest on this case - not that it needs it. The case, if the Supreme Court accepts it, could be a replay of Lotus v. Borland, an important software copyright case the Supreme Court tried but failed to decide in 1996, when the Court deadlocked 4-4 (one justice abstaining). *Note: For detailed...
This site is hosted by Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a technology law firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. You can find a summary of our services here. To learn how GU can help you, contact:
Lee Gesmer