House Passes Changes to Carried Interest Taxation

On May 28th, the House passed H.R. 4213, the “American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act.” The Act addresses an array of issues, but has particular signficance for certain partnership and LLC “carried interests” for investment fund managers. If it goes through, the Act would prevent investment fund managers of venture capital, private equity, hedge…

FINRA Regulatory Notice Regarding Regulation D Offerings

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued Regulatory Notice 10-22 on April 20, 2010. The notice, which came in light of recent abuses in Regulation D offerings, was intended to be a reminder to broker-dealers of their obligation to conduct a reasonable investigation of the issuer and the securities they recommend in offerings made under…

Ninth Circuit Broadens Definition of “Copyright Registration” for Litigation Purposes

In order to initiate an infringement action in federal court, the Copyright Act requires the litigating party to hold a copyright registration. While the circuits are split on what constitutes a copyright registration, the Ninth Circuit recently joined the Fifth and Seventh Circuits in Cosmetic Ideas v. IAC in holding that anapplication for copyright registration suffices for a…

Protecting Children Online–Where we are and where we’re heading under Children’s Online Privacy Act

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) with its implementing regulations, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA Rule) (in effect since April 21, 2000), have served as the primary law in the U.S. for protecting personal information about children online. It’s a gross understatement to state that the Internet is a different world than what…

Is It a Barbie World?

We all can agree that Barbie is a famous brand, regardless of what we may think of her or the thin values she espouses. Barbie dolls have been around since May 9, 1958. The first Barbie trademark registration (Reg. No. 0,689,055) for a “doll” was issued on December 1, 1959. This is interesting because “doll”…

The Skinny (Cow) on Weight Watchers v. Nestle

This posting is about the recently filed trademark case Weight Watchers International Inc. v. Nestle U.S.A. Inc., 09-07964, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). MY DISCLAIMER — I have not read the complaint. Instead, I saw Joel Rosenblatt’s article in the news section on the e INTA LinkedIn Group. Joel’s article states…

Open Brands?!?

A few weeks ago, I attended the Social Media for Sustainability conference hosted by Justmeans. I met Joey and Stacie Shepp there and Joey told me about their project, Open Brands. Open Brands uses Twitter to follow and measure the real life conversations that consumers are having about brands. Open Brands is able to do this through the use of “brand…