Week 8 EOC: Bratz vs. Mattel

"The case is Mattel Inc. v. MGA Entertainment Inc., 11-56357, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (San Francisco)." (bloomberg.com) the case of Mattel vs. Bratz is quite confusing. The rulings have been in both plaintiffs’ favors yet when one loses they take the other back to court for a retrial. The fact is both MGA and Mattel have claims of trademark theft yet Mattel’s runs years old where MGA has more recent theft. Whether or not the statute of limitations has been reached i think the battle is getting rather old.

To claim that just because the founder of MGA was a worker for Mattel and that because he worked for Mattel that the exaggerated features of the "Bratz" doll is stolen from Barbie, which was the first exaggerated doll, is a petty claim. Yet it has been held up in courts and the process just keeps going on and on.

To have a doll that has exaggerated features does not mean that it is the same doll as Barbie. Bratz dolls are a different height and have extremely different facial expressions along with different sized heads and arms. Also stylistically Bratz dolls have more of risky /club apparel where Barbie has more of a classic style.

Also the fact that the court of appeals said that MGA's most recent claim of theft should have not been allowed to go to trial seems biased on the court of appeals end.Not only did they contradict themselves and awarded the plantiff the 172.5 million that the jury awarded in the beginning, they said that MGA had a perfectly reasonable case for trademark infringement.

years before they ruled in Mattel's favor giving almost all of Bratz doll's rights to Mattel, Then a retrial happened and the ruling was reversed. I just hope that they will actually come to a final conclusion in this case and both the companies will stop stealing out of each other's pockets and realize that they both have great idea's for dolls, and let alone those dolls have earned them each a pretty penny.



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-24/mga-bratz-win-over-mattel-partly-erased-by-appeals-court.html

Week 8 BOC: Progress on final project

I have made contact with a lawyer, she is not an intellectual property lawyer but she is a lawyer. That question got away from me when we were talking on the phone this week. We set up a meeting date for next week for lunch. I'm still working on the ten questions, i want to make sure they are good and i also want to make sure that i do not appear to be wasting her time. So i'm putting extra effort into making sure they are something pertaining to my field and that i will be using (maybe) later on in my career.

Throughout the class i've had really no issues with the blog, there has been a week where i have been late but mostly i try to get them done on time. I enjoy using blogger. Twitter on the other hand i've had numerous technical difficulties with. One week every post i tried to make from my phone would say they had been posted but would not go through. Other weeks sometimes twitter would just be down and would not let me log in. I've always done extra tweets to make up for the days i have missed. I have been trying to keep up to date on the twitter. It's been a bit difficult for me to do so. It's a bit sad for me to say that one of the easiest parts of the class is the thing i'm having most difficulty with but its true, its keeping up on the tweets. I don't even update my facebook daily and this is the first time i've ever used twitter but i do see the relevance of using it in today's market. It is keeping you up to date in the market place, and in the consumers minds. Also it keeps you out there and makes you look knowledgeable in the professional field.

Other then that i'm doing great in the class (i hope) and i've enjoyed it. I'm really excited about the final and interviewing my lawyer it should be fun. And she's an enjoyable person to interview anyways.

Week 7 EOC: Lawyers.

My own personal resources that i have found and already contacted for my lawyer is :

Patricia Marr

 i am not sure her actual particular field as a lawyer but i know she attended over 7 years of college and still takes classes on the side at times. and i know she is a lawyer and a legal professional.

also an additional lawyer i know but have not contacted is:

Professor Todd Uglow, He teaches here at the art institute and i believe he is an IP lawyer.

Other intellectual property law offices:

King and chung law offices:

Las Vegas
1050 Indigo Drive
Suite 200
Las Vegas, NV 89145

• 702-260-9500
• 702-260-9434

Found on linkedin and superlawyers.com in the las vegas area:

Mary J. Drury

Marquis Aurbach Coffing
10001 Park Run Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89145

Alexis Mathis

Attorney at Law
(702) 383-3330
3225 McLeod Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89121-2257

W. West Allen

Lewis and Roca LLP

T: 702-949-8200 F: 702-949-8398
Visit: www.lrlaw.com

3993 Howard Hughes Pkwy, Suite 600
Las Vegas, NV 89169

Jodi Donetta Lowry

Gibson Lowry Burris LLP

T: 702-541-7888 F: 702-541-7899
Visit: www.gibsonlowry.com

 7201 Lake Mead Blvd, Suite 503
Las Vegas, NV 89128

Laraine M.I. Burrell

Greenberg Traurig, LLP
T: 702-792-3773 F: 702-792-9002 
3773 Howard Hughes Parkway, Suite 400N
Las Vegas, NV 89169

David R. Koch

T: 702-318-5040 F: 702-318-5039 

Koch & Scow LLC
11500 S. Eastern Avenue, Suite 210
Henderson, NV 89052

Edward J. Quirk

T: 702-792-3773 F: 702-792-9002
Visit: www.gtlaw.com

 Greenberg Traurig, LLP
3773 Howard Hughes Parkway, Suite 400N
Las Vegas, NV 89169

Week 6 EOC: Illicit

The movie illicit is about the black market and dealing with several forms of illegal activity, and how they are all intertwined. Illicit even brought to light that almost every industry is affected by the black market, and how just buying knock offs of bags like Gucci, Prada, or Louis Vuitton. It even states how pirating (which affects me as an audio industry professional) promotes the black market which in turn promotes human trafficking and drug wars. The war against music pirating is something that will be hard to control. There is pro's and con's to pirating but there are so many more con's than there are pro's. Pirating affects not only me as an audio producer, it affects the music labels selling the CD's, the artists who created the music, and also the people working at the places of employment that distribute these CD's. It affects our economy because the lack of revenue at the places of distribution (I.E. Wal-Mart, F.Y.E., Sam Goody etc...) cause employers to cut hours or even employees thus putting people out of a job. Pirating music does not support the music industry what so ever it only hinders it. A huge example is the music franchise H.M.V. music outlets closed down. They are the equivalent to the United States F.Y.E. music outlets. Also pirating affects the quality of music being released. Artists are finding it harder and harder to survive, at one point the artist made revenue off of CD sales now it is left up to concerts and tours to pay their way. Bigger and well known artist are even feeling the heat. The only way to fix the problem of music pirating is to create awareness. We need to show people that there is a cause and affect pattern to downloading a song. Do not be hypocrites, and only support the cause and then go download music ourselves. No every person and every song makes a difference. Every knock off bag walked by and not bought makes a difference. You will no longer be supporting drug cartels; instead you will be supporting the people who spent their time and creativity into making those original products. You will get the true quality and the feeling of satisfaction of knowing you did the right thing, of knowing that you did support the artist behind that record or bag. Every person counts. Make the change. I know i will be from this day forward.

Week 5 EOC: Patent Troll

Corporation's are scrambling to protect their products. Patent trolls are out there and all they want is to make money off of claims that i believe they should have no right to file.
a "patent troll is a disparaging term for someone who sues for patent infringement" - NOLO patent copyright and trademark law. When companies have to be afraid of loosing billions to members of the general public its a frightening affair. Members of the general public who have no interest in licensing and selling the invention should not have any right to claims about the products patents. "in other words the patent troll is in the business of suing companies not in the business of making or selling anything. A friendlier term for the practices is patent assertion company." NOLO patent copyright and trademark law. I don't believe that members of the general public assume themselves a company let alone to have any interest in selling these items. As the article states most companies do not keep up to date on their patents and should just reinvent a way to mark the patents in such a manner that this problem can be avoided. I mean i understand that yes this is a good way to keep corporations in check, and it also helps the inventors keep their cash flow rolling, but in a way this is a not a way to actually solve the problem it just creates a panic. I believe they should create a new way to keep patent laws in check without the general public being able to make money by catching corporations; we are not the government thus we should not enforce the law.  Even the courts rules themselves that not every patent out of date warrants a case " the supreme court determined that courts should not automatically issue an injunction based on a finding of patent infringement." - NOLO patent copyright and trademark law. So even the courts themselves have ruled in the favor of the corporations but i truly don't believe that anything will change until a separate title or entity is created to check these patents instead of just allowing the general public to do so.

Week 3 EOC: Jeopardy questions

$100: Q,  When an item or substance is found to exist in a natural state (i.e. minerals, etc.) they are not eligible for what?
A, what is patent protection?
$200: Q, When an invention has a specific application, but an inventor finds a completely different application, it falls under what category?
A, what is new use?
$100: Q, When an idea, design, or expression doesn’t belong to anyone under the patent law it is said to exist in what?
A, What is The Public Domain?

Week 4 EOC: Jeopardy

In class last thursday we played the game show jeopardy. I liked it and i believed it was fun. I think pretty much everyone liked it and i really do believe it helped me personally on learning all the law definitions. The answer question format of the game really just makes you think outside the box compared to just memorizing the definition in the book. Seeing the definition of an answer in a question puts not only the creators mind to the test but also the person whos answering the questions mind to the test; It also puts the definition into everyday form. Meaning your brain learns the definition faster by playing it in a game rather than other typical memorization methods.

I liked the idea of the runner. it made the game a lot more competitive and fun. it also made the team closer, the whole class actually closer. The game forced us all to learn each others names, and learn about each other in general. The game also helped our finding skills along with realizing there is a time limit on everything.

The only thing i didnt like about the game was the final jeopardy question i think it was a smart way to do it, but at the same time i believe that the void at the end of the game was faulty. Almost three teams had the answer even if only one it should have still been played. But thats just my opinion, and my team would have gotten around `12 extra points without the void.

all in all i really liked the jeopardy game i think it was a great learning tool and a fun one too at that.