Copying and the Internet: A Never-Ending Saga of Infringement

Photo Credit: Paste Copy Paste Copy by Chris Christian used under CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo Credit: Paste Copy Paste Copy by Chris Christian used under CC BY-SA 2.0

Guest post by J. Michael Allen. an intellectual property attorney and Co-founder of Copypedia.

It’s 2014 and the internet continues to evolve and amaze – today we routinely use tablets and touchscreens, and utter phrases like “Google it” or “there’s an app for that”.

Luckily just like the thankful death of black and white TV, gone are the days of dial up modem connections (and irritating disconnections) and clunky laptops.

Today you can be riding in a car, and with a simple ‘click’ on a mobile device, send (or post, share, Tweet, Like, etc.) information to another person on the other side of the planet in the blink of an eye.

A Culture of Copyists

Unfortunately just as easy and fast as it is to send information in the digital age, it is just as easy to copy someone else’s content, and with the sheer magnitude of people (some say 2 billion-ish) using the internet, let alone robots or other automatic programming, there is zero chance to stop it.

After all, “right-click, copy, paste” is something we all do over and over again on a daily basis, and these actions ultimately continue into the online environment. Continue reading Copying and the Internet: A Never-Ending Saga of Infringement

How Copyrights Ruined the Olympics and What You Can Learn From It

The Olympics is the biggest sporting event in the world, with London 2012 on course to achieving record-breaking viewing figures across the globe.

The Olympic brand is widely recognized and is, therefore, a significant and highly valuable asset of the Olympic Movement.

The London 2012 Olympics will be remembered for its particularly aggressive stance on brand protection with new laws being passed – the Olympic Symbol etc. (Protection) Act 1995 (OSPA) and the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006.

These laws stand alongside existing copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws and create a new ‘Unauthorized Association’ Law for the protection of the Olympic brand.

Olympics Sets New High for Brand Protection

Collectively, the brand encompasses a variety of names, phrases, logos and designs, known as the ‘Games’ Marks’.

The legal protection is necessary to preserve the commercial value of the brand and to bestow upon authorized sponsors and licensees of the Games exclusive rights to use the Olympic brands.

At first glance, Continue reading How Copyrights Ruined the Olympics and What You Can Learn From It