Tag Archives: reputation

Miles Davis Properties vs. Miles’ Cafe and the anatomy of a trademark lawsuit

When is a trumpeter named Miles not allowed to go by Miles? Or open a cafe using his name? Or pose for a black-silhouetted profile of himself playing said trumpet? The heirs of Miles Davis filed a lawsuit against Miles’ Cafe, a jazz cafe started by a jazz fan who plays trumpet and goes by …

October 3, 2011 – 10:31 pm | By John William Nelson | Posted in Trademark | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Can you steal the idea for a product or service?

The Telegraph has an article about claims that the founders of the Huffington Post ‘stole’ the blueprint for the popular website.  Can you ‘steal’ an idea, be it for a product or a service? On some level this questions appears to ridiculous.  The Huffington Post, for example, is modeled after many community sites before it, …

May 26, 2011 – 2:02 pm | By John William Nelson | Posted in Copyright, Economics & Commerce, Polemics, Trade Secret, Trademark | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Reputation: Libel, slander, and the purpose of defamation laws

Techdirt1 has an interesting article discussing reputation as a scarce commodity in reference to the Cooksource fiasco.  Techdirt is right: reputation is a scarce commodity; difficult to build yet easy to destroy.  Cooksource’s editor found this out the hard way. Companies and professionals learn quickly the importance of their reputation and their name.  I recently …

November 14, 2010 – 12:21 pm | By John William Nelson | Posted in Defamation | Tagged , , , , | Comments (1)