Patents

Disney to No Longer Seek to Trademark "Dia de los Muertos" [UPDATE]

UPDATE, 6 P.M.: After a flurry of online outrage, Disney has decided to no longer pursue a trademark on "Dia de los Muertos." See Also: *Lawsuit: Disneyland Employee Dressed as White Rabbit Refused to Hug Black Child *Disneyland and AIDS Charity Sued for Darth Vader Swinging at Bird But Hitting Lad ... More >>

Nestle Purina PetCare Sued by Garden Grove Nonprofit Hemopet for Copyright Infringement

A Garden Grove nonprofit that provides animal blood banks and veterinary diagnostic services is suing Nestle in Santa Ana federal court for copyright infringement.Hemopet accuses Nestle's Purina PetCare unit of infringing on four patents related to determining nutritional programs for dogs and cats ... More >>

Wine Company Trying to Trademark Term 'Taco Truck'

​Today is something called National Taco Day, which is a total bullshit holiday made up in 2000 by Chuy's in Austin. It started as a marketing ploy, and Chuy's actually filed a trademark application for it, but it let its rights to the term slip, meaning hundreds of lazy bloggers and reporters can ... More >>

German Liquor Maker Can Now Legally Call their Drink "Fuck Schnapps"

​In a cheap media ploy that obviously worked, a German liquor company applied for a trademark for a brand of schnapps they wanted to call "Fuck." Their initial efforts were stymied by authorities--but now, a German high court has ruled in their favor in the most important free-speech battle since ... More >>

Petition Filed with US Patent Office to Cancel "Urban Homestead" Trademark Held by Dingbat Dervaes Family

The Ma and Pa Kettle of the legal world?​Remember that humongous controversy earlier this year when a weirdo Pasadena family not only successfully got a trademark for the term "urban homesteading" (used in American English for decades), but began sending threatening legal letters to entities who u ... More >>

[UPDATED] Pasadena's Dervaes Family Trademarks the Terms 'Urban Homestead' and 'Urban Homesteading,' Now Cracking Down on Bloggers

This guy just gave a talk in Orange County. . . . Better change the title of that book, son!​UPDATED, 10:50 P.M. Those dingbat Dervaeses won't give up. Rather than take their licking and apologize to the authors, bloggers, and libraries who dared use the term "urban homestead" or "urban homeste ... More >>

OC Sex Inventions

Inspired by an exhibit of sex inventions at the New York-based Museum of Sex, I thought I'd do a little trolling through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's online search for anything interesting coming out of our fair county. Anaheim inventor Wayne Manska was awarded patent #6,645,164 in 2003 ... More >>

Patent Pending

If we're to believe the idealists out there, rock 'n roll is still (and always was) a hotbed of innovation and creativity. Now, without even getting into details, I can tell you that that is a big, heaping lie. Ever heard Jet? How about Godsmack? Yeah. So, want to fuel your musical cynicism? Take a ... More >>

Su®f City

Because nothing evokes the true spirit of surfing like the smell of lawyers and advertising executives in the morning, we can all rejoice at the news that Huntington Beach is now officially "Surf City USA", in the very real and legally binding sense of those words. According to the L.A. Times, "[The ... More >>

a Clockwork Orange