The Palo Alto wealth-management firm Sand Hill Advisors LLC has lost its trademark infringement suit against an identically-named Los Altos commercial real estate company. Rejecting plaintiff’s argument that the name “Sand Hill” evoked an “entrepreneurial spirit” which made it protectable, U.S. District Court Judge Saundra Armstrong ruled instead that “Sand Hill” was geographically descriptive, which [...]
Tags:actual confusion·geographically descriptive·protectable
A Chinese court found no wrongdoing by Baidu in a copyright infringement case launched against the largest search engine in China some two years ago by Universal Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment Hong Kong and Warner Music Hong Kong. The Beijing court ruled that the search engine had not broken the law by linking downloads [...]
A Chicago teenager suddenly finds herself embroiled in a trademark dispute with McDonald’s Corp. over her use of the name McFest for an annual charity concert featuring high school and college bands. Although the concert, which raises money for the Special Olympics, has been promoted under the McFest name since 2007, and the teen’s surname [...]
In her new guide for corporate management, Enterprise Security for the Executive: Setting the Tone From The Top, Jennifer Bayuk, former head of information security for Bear Stearns, contends that assaults on corporate security over the Internet continue to put valuable corporate assets at risk, and offers guidance for measuring, managing and minimizing those risks. [...]
I am a commercial litigator and intellectual property lawyer at Callahan & Blaine in Orange County. Although my practice encompasses a wide variety of business disputes, I have a particular fondness for, and am prone to wax philosophical on, the subjects of copyright and trademark infringement in music, literature, art, and film.
