As many of my readers know, I haven’t been able to quit my day job. Fortunately, the focus of my day job is intellectual property law–a legal realm sprinkled with just enough quirky issues to keep my day job fun.
One such example is the subject of my latest post on my law firm’s blog, entitled “Make America Naughty Again: The Risk of Risque Trademarks.” Back when I took a class in trademark law at Harvard, I never dreamed that the question of whether you could register an X-rated trademark would be the subject of important federal court cases. But now it has–and resulted in important rulings by the United States Supreme Court and the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. Or, as we might now say, Shit Happens®.
Here is a link to that post. Hope you enjoy it.
FYI: The image at the top of this post is just one of more than 100 pending “shit” trademark registration applications. A similar number of applications have been filed to register trademarks containing a word that rhymes with “truck.”
Speaking about Naughty America, you write in “Bearing Witness” about some of the neo-Nazi groups, and that is a theme throughout the book. That book was copyrighted in 2000, which was a long time ago. These themes are applicable now, unfortunately. What have you done to call attention to this new neo-Nazi movement? I’m asking because I know, as a writer and Esq., that if you have a soapbox, which you do, it’s critically important to stand on it. I hope you can make a difference or at least try. Maybe you already are, so I’m curious to hear about that. Thank you.
I agree, Ronna. While I have been involved with local efforts by the Anti-Defamation League, I need to do more. Thanks for reminding me!