Judge Baer of the Southern District of New York has allowed Gucci to proceed with contributory infringement claims against credit card processing companies that processed purchases for web site selling counterfeit Gucci products.

Judge Baer concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support direct trademark infringement, but sufficient evidence to support contributory trademark infringement.  Specifically, the court noted that the middleman who set up the merchant account actually advertised on its website that it worked with “high risk merchants” including those who sold “replicas.”

We are unsure about the wisdom of this decision.  We anticipate an appeal.  Third party liability is a tricky beast since it essentially imposes liability for knowledge rather than conduct.

The FDA has approved a first-of-its-kind technology to counter a leading cause of blindness in older adults — macular degeneration.  The solution:  a tiny telescope implanted inside the eye.

The Implantable Miniature Telescope is intended to help at the end stages of incurable age-related macular degeneration, a slow, creeping loss of central vision that blocks reading, watching TV, eventually even recognizing faces.

The procedure is not without risk or serious complications.  However, the treatment looks promising for the right candidate.

You can find the story here.

For the first time in about a decade,  the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) issued a precedential decision sustaining an opposition based on a likelihood of trademark dilution. The decision may be found at http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/ttabvue-91166701-OPP-99.pdf (National Pork Board and National Pork Producers Council v. Supreme Lobster and Seafood Company).  This recent ruling gives owners of well-known marks renewed hope of halting the unauthorized registration of similar marks without having to establish an actual  likelihood of confusion. The Board’s decision, in large part, was based on specific evidence and survey evidence. 

For the first time since 1999, the Board found that the mark THE OTHER RED MEAT for “fresh and frozen salmon” diluted the prior (and famous) mark THE OTHER WHITE MEAT for “association services namely, promoting the interests of members of the pork industry.”

What should be taken from the Board’s decision concerning dilution cases before the Board are the following:

Keep accurate records detailing the full extent of the use of your trademarks.

1. Frequently monitor any authorized use of your trademarks by others (and document such monitoring efforts).
2. Consider what steps to take against unauthorized use of your trademarks by others.
3. Obtain trademark registrations (U.S. and abroad) covering your goods/services.
4. Trademark fame is dependent on extensive, long-standing use and promotion.
5. Hire reputable, experienced trademark survey companies to help prove fame.
6. Consult a trademark attorney before using, applying to register, or challenging, a mark.

LucasFilm wants to force a Hong Kong-based laser company to stop making a new, high-powered product that LucasFilm believes looks too much like the allegedly famous lightsaber from the “Star Wars” film franchise.

Lucasfilm Ltd. sent a cease-and-desist letter to Wicked Lasers, threatening legal action if Wicked doesn’t “change” its Pro Arctic Laser product or stop selling it altogether.

Steve Liu, CEO of Wicked Lasers, said his 7-year-old company has been selling similar lasers for years and has never compared the product to the Jedi weapon.

This is not the first time LucasFilm has sought help from the courts over perceived copyright threats to its lightsaber laser swords. In 2006, Lucasfilm filed suit against a Maryland-based company that produced lightsaber replicas, saying the products violated "Star Wars" trademarks.

Wicked’s Spyder III laser is dramatically stronger than past lasers. Wicked Lasers advertises it as "the world’s most powerful portable laser."

Lest we forget, of course, that the LightSaber is in fact not a real product.