Balough
June 8, 2017
(June 8, 2017) Placing copyrighted materials on a website does not justify an inference that an alleged infringer accessed the materials, especially when the materials are not strikingly similar, the Seventh Circuit found. The case involved whether a homebuilder infringed copyrighted home plans. The appellate court said the home-plan field was “crowded,” making it difficult […]
Balough
June 8, 2017
(May 11, 2017) As autonomous and driverless vehicles take to the roads, drivers, car manufactures, programmers, and insurance companies will face new legal challenges, said Richard C. Balough in a presentation at the 2017 Intellectual Property Litigation Seminar sponsored by DRI. “Because today’s and tomorrow’s cars are computers that happen to move physically on the roadway, […]
Balough
May 18, 2017
(May 18, 2017) Even though the public may use “google” in a generic sense with regards to internet search engines, that fact alone does not suffice to cancel Google’s trademarks. The Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for Google against a party who argued that Google was viewed by the public as generic, thus no longer […]
Balough
May 4, 2017
(May 4, 2017) The Hatchery, a food business incubator in Chicago, hosted Cheryl Balough on April 20, 2017 for a presentation on “Trademarks & Trade Secrets: Protecting Special Features in Your Food Business.” Ms. Balough shared guidelines for selecting trademarks, reviewed the trademark clearance and registration process, and discussed the intersection of trademarks and domain […]
Balough
March 24, 2017
(March 25, 2017) Fashion designers might be able to stitch together copyright protection for their clothing thanks to the Supreme Court. In a divided decision, the Supreme Court granted copyright protection to cheerleading uniforms because the chevrons, curves, stripes, angles, diagonals, and shapes are conceptually separate from the “utilitarian function” of the uniform. This result […]
Balough
December 8, 2016
(November 28, 2016) Richard C. Balough again is one of the contributing authors to the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education’s (IICLE) publication Intellectual Property Law 2017 Edition. Mr. Balough wrote the chapter on Ownership and Transfer of Copyrights. The guidebook was first published in 2005 and has been revised several times. Mr. Balough has […]
Balough
December 8, 2016
(November 15, 2016) The question of how aspiring chefs can use trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets to protect their valuable recipes and presentations was the focus of a presentation by Balough Law Offices, LLC to the Chicago Bar Assn.’s Creative Arts and Food Law Committees. Cheryl Dancey Balough explained that while recipes themselves are not […]
Balough
October 19, 2016
(October 19, 2016) Cheryl Dancey Balough presented on “Copyright Law Basics” to members of the Chicago Bar Association on October 18, 2016 as part of a continuing legal education program coordinated by the CBA’s Intellectual Property Committee. She discussed the requirements for a copyrightable work, authorship and ownership options, rights that a copyright owner enjoys, some […]
Balough
October 11, 2016
(October 11, 2016) The intellectual property issues associated with autonomous vehicles provides a timely case study to assist business lawyers in advising their clients on use of the Internet of Things (IoT). In a presentation entitled “Autonomous Vehicles A Stalking Horse for Intellectual Property Rights in the Internet of Things,” Richard C. Balough explained how […]
Balough
October 7, 2016
(October 7, 2016) In its report of a new study on patent assertion entities (PAEs), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) carefully avoids the term patent troll while finding that “Litigation” PAEs account for 96 percent of patent infringement lawsuits but generate only about 20 percent of patent license revenues of those PAEs studied. The report, […]
