One of the things we pride ourselves on is the reliability and credibility of our sourcing. As a firm rule, CopyCense cites only to online and print sources that meet our standards for accuracy, timeliness, and credibility. Therefore, we tend to cite to established publications that refrain from running gossip or sensationalistic stories.

There are times, though, that the really juicy stuff only is available via tabloids. This is one of those times.

The Smoking Gun, that online rag of guilty informational and literary pleasures, has reported that The Donald is suing ex-wife Ivana Trump to keep her from using her name as a trademark in a new real estate business. Writes TSG: “Donald (who is identified as the “famous real estate developer”) argues that issuance of the trademark sought by his ex would be ‘confusingly similar’ to his own valuable handle. Ivana filed her trademark application in September 2004, but it wasn’t until the mark was ‘published’ in February that USPTO proceedings could be started by anyone seeking to challenge the requested trademark.”

Marty Schwimmer, who writes and edits The Trademark Blog [ link ], notes the really pertinent issue: “You’d have thought the divorce settlement would have envisioned this.”

The Smoking Gun. Donald And Ivana In Trademark Tangle. May 3, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“Google Inc., which runs the largest ad network on the Internet, is making millions of dollars a year by filling otherwise unused Web sites with ads. In many instances, these ad-filled pages appear when users mistype an Internet address, such as “BistBuy.com.”

“This new form of advertising is turning into a booming business that some say is cluttering the Internet and could be violating trademark rules. It also has sparked a speculative frenzy of investment in domain names, pushing the value of some beyond the $1 million mark.

“Google specifically bars Web addresses that infringe on trademarks from using its ad network, but a review of placeholder Web sites that result from misspelled domain names of well-known companies found that many of the ads on those pages come directly from Google.”

Leslie Walker and Brian Krebs. The Web’s Million-Dollar Typos. WashingtonPost.com. April 30, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“Congress’ leading proponent of forcing Internet service providers to retain records about their users’ activities lashed out at the industry on Wednesday, saying such a federal law will be a ‘very minor burden’ to bear.

“Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, said at a House of Representatives hearing that new laws were necessary to thwart child pornographers and other Internet predators. Investigations into illicit behavior have been hampered because data may be routinely deleted in the normal course of business, DeGette and other data retention proponents claim.

“She added that the committee plans to grill ISP representatives at another hearing that may occur as soon as next week. That happens to be a bipartisan view.”

Anne Broache and Declan McCullagh. Backer of ISP Snooping Slams Industry. News.com. May 3, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“OpenDocument was ratified as a file format standard Tuesday night by an international standards group, setting the stage for greater worldwide adoption of the open-source file format technology.

“A number of productivity applications, such as OpenOffice 2.0, Sun Microsystems’ StarOffice 8 and IBM’s Workplace, support the OpenDocument file format. Microsoft, however, is not supporting OpenDocument and instead is seeking ISO standardization for its own Office Open XML file formats.”

Dawn Kawamoto. OpenDocument Standard Ratified. News.com. May 3, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.