Politics
More good law school news: Today I was elected president of the DePaul Intellectual Property Law Society. This has been an underutilized organization in the past, but I look forward to turning it into a vehicle to increase the connections between our IP students and the wider IP community. We’ve got a good executive board in place, and I think we can do good things. If you are involved in the IP community, either as an attorney or in another capacity, and you would like to come and talk to some very sharp and enthusiastic students, drop us a line.
Trademark and Twitter
With everyone and their grandmas getting onto Twitter lately, it only makes sense that there would be an influx of businesses with plans for exploiting that exploding user base. Over at the Spam Notes blog, Venkat Balasubramani has been examining the potential trademark implications for Twitter. In his most recent post, he aggregates his previous posts and takes a look at some of the potential pitfalls of this new-found popularity.
IP Journal
I just received some great news. I was selected to write for the DePaul Journal of Arts, Technology and Intellectual Property. I’m thrilled.
The selection process was based on a write-on competition. I picked-up the instruction packet last week and gave it a try, despite being a little unsure about my chances as a 1L. The competition required the completion of a case summary and a short quiz on Blue Book citation.
The case summary was the most challenging but also the most enjoyable part. We summarized Zomba Enterprises, Inc. v. Panorama Records, Inc., which evaluated a fair use argument as put forward by a karaoke disc manufacturer. 491 F.3d 574, (6th Cir. 2007). Even if I hadn’t gotten on the journal, it would have been worth the effort. It was a good exercise and the case was interesting. But seeing as how I did get on, it definitely was worth it.
Real World Application
As I mentioned before, it is nice to occasionally get some hint that I might be learning some very useful information. Such was the case when I read this case summary of CoStar Realty Information, Inc. v. Field by Evan Brown of internetcases.com. Having recently covered jurisdiction in Civil Procedure, I was pleased to find that I understood the discussion of personal jurisdiction via website terms-of-service and the validity of a forum selection clause. I have no doubt that Professor Greenberger is imparting highly relevant and usefull information in every class, but it’s nice to see an application of that recently obtained knowledge in the real world.
Mr. Brown, to whom I was first introduced by the consistently excellent This Week In Law podcast, also makes an appearance in this Chicago Tribune article about lawyers and social networks. He makes the astute observation that lawyers are just like any other group, in that there is a spectrum of comfort with and adaptation of new technology. For a more humorous take on this issue, see his April 1st post about technology ethics and responsible telephone use.
