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CRISPR-Cas9 is a revolutionary genome editing technology with a host of potential biotechnology applications and also, the subject of three-year long litigation between leading research institutes. During the period of 2011 to 2012, two research teams, one at the University of California-Berkeley and the other at the Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology-affiliated Broad Institute, were researching the same mechanism simultaneously yet separately. Finally, by the end of 2012, Dr. Jennifer Doudna of UC Berkeley published her findings on how to transform CRISPR from a natural bacterial mechanism into a laboratory-based genome editing tool. In 2013, Feng Zhang of the…

Rosie the Riveter has been a labor icon since World War II. Indeed, Rosie and her “We Can Do It!” message was used as a symbol of feminism and to boost morale for females working in factories during the war. Artist J. Howard Miller designed the poster in 1943 for Westinghouse Electric, who had hired him to create a series of posters to display to the company’s workers. Interestingly, the name “Rosie” was not originally associated with the picture and instead, the iconic woman was dubbed “Rosie” when the poster was rediscovered in 1982 in the U.S. National Archives.

What impact will Brexit have on your trademarks? Any person or company holding an EU Trademark (EUTM) must review its position in light of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union at midnight on Friday, March 29, 2019.  The UK government may agree to an arrangement whereby existing rights will automatically transfer, with or without a fee, but currently there is no agreement in place.  It has been the practice that if a trademark was used in the UK and Ireland, that should constitute sufficient use to enjoy protection in all member states.  When the UK leaves the EU, a…

Red Bull recently filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey against a wholesaler for distributing gray market energy drink products in this country. Intended for sale in South Africa and not in the United States, Red Bull asserted the unauthorized energy drinks violated Federal Drug Administration requirements as well as Red Bull’s intellectual property rights. More particularly, the energy drink giant accused Quality Wholesale Distributors of trademark infringement, unfair competition, and trademark dilution. Quality allegedly has been involved in the importation, sale, promotion, and distribution of the gray market Red Bull drinks.…

A “Rick and Morty” themed pop-up bar, located at the “Wubba Lubba Dub PUB” in D.C., was forced to close down merely one day after opening because negotiations with Turner Broadcasting and Cartoon Network fell through. Drink Company, the entity behind the pop-up, announced intentions to execute this “schwifty” experience without first seeking permission or a license from the network. The pop-up was planned to run from August 9 until October 6 but experienced a one week delay in opening due to hopeful negotiations with Turner Broadcasting. In the weeks prior to the bar opening, an attorney for Drink Company…

  The Walt Disney Company recently moved to dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit brought against it by the estate of Michael Jackson. “The Last Days of Michael Jackson,” the subject of the lawsuit, was aired by ABC earlier this year as a documentary television retrospective on the star’s Jackson 5 years to his final days. In essence, the estate claims the documentary features copyright-protected videos and songs owned exclusively by the estate and without ever seeking permission for the same. In response, Disney continues to maintain its documentary constitutes fair use. In its complaint, Michael’s Jackson’s estate focuses on the…

The first microwave was invented by accident in a Raytheon laboratory testing magnetrons. Perry Spencer, the accidental inventor, was a Raytheon employee and self-taught engineer. One day while working near the magnetrons, which are high-powered vacuum tubes inside radars, Spencer noticed a peanut butter chocolate candy bar in his pocket had begun to melt. With this newfound knowledge of how to cook food within seconds, Spencer, together with Raytheon, patented the invention. Two years later, the first commercial microwave oven was launched by Raytheon, cost $5,000 at the time, and approximated 750 pounds in weight and nearly 6 feet in…

Billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, recently settled a dispute with an artist over a farting unicorn image. Tom Edwards, a Colorado-based potter, first released the drawing of a unicorn farting into a pipe to power an electric car in 2010. The mug featuring the image was consistent with the signature light-hearted cartoons of Edwards’ “Wallyware” brand and contained the phrase “electric cars are good for the environment because electricity comes from magic.” The dispute began last year when Musk tweeted a picture of the coffee mug including Edwards’ work with the caption “maybe my favorite mug ever.”…

In response to continued criticism for failing to adequately prevent copyright infringement on its platform, YouTube has launched a tool designed to fight the issue. Known as the “Copyright Match” tool, the initiative is designed to identify re-uploads of a user’s content to other accounts. The uploaded video is first scanned and checked for similarities to other videos. Any such matches appear appropriately in the “matches” tab. Once a match has been identified, the user may choose to take no action, request YouTube remove the video, or take matters into their own hands by contacting the creator directly. When a…