Category: Internet Law

A Laugh is Worth a Buck.

As most of you know, my client InfoMedia created the most talked-about iPhone App ever – iFart. Earlier this year my client received a letter demanding $50,000 or they would sue InfoMedia over InfoMedia using the common phrase “Pull My Finger” in some of the marketing and public relations materials InfoMedia used to promote iFart. We decided that instead of paying the $50K for the bogus demand, we would file an action in Federal Court here in Colorado and ask a judge to rule that InfoMedia’s use was NOT a trademark infringement as suggested by the Pull My Finger folks. It caused a _ _ _ _ storm of public relations activity including mentions on NPR, CNN, and many other major media outlets.

Last night it was featured on The Daily Show.

What does all this prove? It proves that a laugh is worth at least a buck. iFart Mobile sells for $0.99 on the App Store. I don’t know the exact sales numbers, but I’m betting over 500,000 people have purchased the app by now.

A LAUGH IS WORTH A BUCK.

It also shows that when you become wildly successful with a creative endeavor, there is going to be something that comes along to complicate the success. In this case it was a competitor. It seems like there is always some price for success.

Here’s the segment: (evidently I’m not a “Real” lawyer… )  🙂

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
iFeud
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes		 Political Humor Joke of the Day

Brand Protection Council Membership

I want to tell you about BPCouncil (www.bpcouncil.com) a great new international organization I have recently joined and highly recommend that you check out.  They have already provided great value to me both directly and through referrals.

bplogo

BPCouncil is a dynamic international virtual community of brand protection and IP professionals. You can connect with brand owners, IP lawyers, brand protection technology providers, customs officials and other IP professionals from around the globe.

On www.BPCouncil.com you can find a wide variety of helpful resources, networking tools, in-depth news stories and more. There are also opportunities to promote your organization through speaking engagements, contributing content for the website/newsletter, discounted banner ads for members and an active job board and more. So far BPCouncil has distributed my ebook and I can’t wait to submit more material to them.

Join now and get a 15% discount off corporate membership. Be sure to write “Kevin Houchin” in the referral code space.

If you have any questions, Sarah Hein of the Member Services team will be happy to provide you with further information at SarahH@bpcouncil.com or +41-22-735-40-65.

I look forward to your becoming a part of the BPCouncil community.

This really is worth your time and money. I hope you take advantage of this offer.

TM & Copyright for Creative People – Free Webinar

I’ve been asked a few times over the last few days to repost the links to the copyright and trademark webinars I did for Morgan James Publishing back in January.  These programs are tailored to the needs of authors, but the concpets and laws are the same for anyone in creative business.

Here are the links:

Trademark & Branding

Copyright

Feel free to forward these links to any of your friends who might need the information.

If you would like me to do a similar session tailored to your group – give me a call at 970-493-1070 or drop me an email and we’ll work something out.

Trademarks on Facebook

If you own some trademarks, be sure to fill out this form on Facebook to make sure nobody else registers your mark as their Facebook Username (Vanity URL).

http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=username_rights

Thanks to Mari Smith for including this link in this post.

Practical (c) Fair Use Tips

I haven’t been blogging a lot lately because I’ve been focusing my writing time on my next book, working title: The Secrets of Creative Business. Yesterday I posted a tweet that I was working on the section of the book covering copyright “Fair Use” and was asked by a Facebook friend to share some practical tips.

Here are a few practical hints:

1. Always ask for permission if you’re using someone’s content.
2. If you don’t get permission, use a minimum of content from anyone else.
3. Give credit for what you use.
4. This is the big one: ADD value to the content you’re using from other people by examining it (criticism – see below) and applying their ideas and/or expression to your audience’s situation filtered through your expertise.

If you do this, you won’t have to lose a lot of sleep over what you’ve used because you will be making a great argument that you’re actually building the marketability of the other person’s work through your use of their content (see factor 4 below).

If you’re ripping someone’s content for its obvious stupidity, then be a bit more careful and talk with your lawyer.  🙂

Just in case you want to read the actual copyright fair use statute:

TITLE 17 > CHAPTER 1 > § 107
§ 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—

  1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
  2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
  3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
  4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.