This podcast covers intellectual property including trademarks, patents and desgins. It is brought to you by Ken Suzan, of counsel and a trademark attorney at the Minneapolis office of Barnes & Thornburg LLP, and Dr. Rolf Claessen, partner at Michalski Hüttermann & Partner, Germany. We will talk about current developments, record interviews with interesting people in this field, and we will introduce you to helpful tools and websites in this field.
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Peter Sloane about Trademark Renewal Scams – Taylor Swift Lyrics Trademarks – Copyright for Cooking Recipies – IP Fridays Episode 23
Peter Sloane tells us how to fight against trademark renewal scams. Taylor Swift has protected her lyrics as trademarks to be able to fight T-Shirts with her lyrics. Is it possible to copyright cooking recipies? Find out in this episode! Also, we invite all listeners to our IP Fridays Meetup during the INTA Meeting in San Diego. Find Details at http://www.ipfridays.com/inta
IP FRIDAYS
Co-Presenters:
Rolf Claessen and Kenneth Suzan
Episode 23 – March 6, 2015
RC = Rolf Claessen
KS = Kenneth Suzan
PS = Peter Sloane
PS: I am Peter Sloane, a partner at Leason Ellis in White Plains, New York and you’re listening to IP Fridays.
KS: Hello and welcome to this episode of IP Fridays. Our names are Ken Suzan and Rolf Claessen and this is THE podcast dedicated to Intellectual Property. It does not matter where you are from, in-house or private practice, novice or expert, we will help you stay up-to-date with current topics in the fields of trademarks, patents, design and copyright, discover useful tools and much more.
RC: Welcome to the 23rd episode of IP Fridays. We have now hit over 2,000 monthly downloads of our MP3 files (audio files), and a total of more than 13,000 downloads and we are very proud of that. Another thing we want to mention is that we will host a small gathering for our listeners during the INTA meeting in San Diego. If you want to learn about this gathering and want to attend the gathering, please visit www.ipfridays.com/inta. In this episode we will tell you about Taylor Swift trademarking her lyrics. We will also tell you about how not to copyright recipes, and our very special guest today is Peter Sloane of the firm Leason Ellis and he will tell us about a recent case he won against one of these scam renewal notices companies. You might all know these companies that are sending out these scam letters asking you to pay money to be entered into a database. But first, Ken has a story about Taylor Swift and trademarking lyrics.
KS: Popular songwriter Taylor Swift has made a smooth and successful transition from being a country artist, to a pop artist. Her new album, “1989” has broken sales records within the first week, but Taylor Swift has also decided not to have her album available on the popular music sharing service, Spotify. Swift’s music is hot and has attracted the attention of many people seeking to make profits off of her stardom.
Multiple websites sell handmade and vintage products that often have music lyrics written on them. Popular lyrics from Swift’s songs have been featured on many products sold through such Websites. Her lyrics are printed onto merchandise such t-shirts, mugs, cell phone cases, guitars, and much more, without Swift’s approval or authorization. How to solve such a situation? File trademarks.
From now on, if you want to use Taylor’s lyrics on your products however, you’ll need to be one of her licensees. Lyrics such as “This Sick Beat,” and “Nice to Meet You. Where You Been?” are the subject of pending trademark applications at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Taylor Swift may indeed have the world’s first trademarked lyrics. The lyrics that Swift writes have become catchphrases, and many others have seen the dollar potentials of Ms. Swift’s artistic talent. A quick search of the USPTO data for applications filed by Ms. Swift revealed dozens upon dozens of pending trademark applications covering goods such as toys, bean bags, and Christmas stockings to napkin rings, candle holders, and coasters.