Author Archives: Eric Misterovich

Warner Brothers was sued for trademark infringement and copyright infringement by the creators of video-based internet memes Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat. These two videos have been viewed over 245,000,000 times, collectively. Keyboard Cat is a 54 second video uploaded to YouTube in 2007 that shows a cat playing a keyboard. Staring in the video, […]

You might not have noticed, but we are in the midst of an American beer renaissance.  Craft breweries are one of the fastest growing industries in the country, and the industry is expanding at a rate faster than any other time since Prohibition ended, especially in states like Michigan, where Michigan microbreweries have boomed.  At […]

The Internet is no substitute for an experienced trademark attorney, according to an upcoming study conducted by University of North Carolina School of Law Assistant Professor Deborah Gerhardt and Professor Jon McClanahan. Why can’t I just search for how to do it on the Internet? We have amazing access to information to solving problems or […]

A recent District Court decision has once again reaffirmed the broad protection afforded to ISP’s under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act’s (“DMCA”) safe harbor provision. Viacom, as well as several other copyright holders, initiated suit against YouTube for alleged copyright  infringement occurring on the site. The case was remanded back from the 2nd Circuit with […]

Last week in  The Associated Press v. Meltwater U.S. Holdings, Inc., a federal district court in New York held that the internet news monitoring service, Meltwater, infringed upon the copyrights of the Associated Press (AP) when it compiled excerpts of AP articles and distributed them to its subscribers.   How it all started . . […]

Let me begin with one simple fact: Most of us have probably downloaded music at least once in our life. Don’t try and hide it, I understand the circumstances. Music is too expensive, online music stores do not offer everything you want, actual record stores are about as rare as a wooly mammoth, and record […]

After a New York City-based Internet startup, Aereo, prevailed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit earlier this month, major broadcast corporations, Fox and Univision, have hinted at switching their channels over to pay TV.  While the days of rabbit ears and antennas have largely faded away since the analog to […]

Recently, the Michigan Court of Appeals rejected the request of Thomas M. Cooley Law School to reveal anonymous bloggers who have publicly criticized the school’s use of national rankings and graduate employment statistics. The controversy began when a former Cooley student created a blog called Thomas Cooley Law School Scam in order to critique some […]

Last week, the Kardashian sisters filed a copyright lawsuit in California federal court, claiming Ellen Pearson, the widow of their father, Richard Kardashian, unlawfully sold their family photographs and diaries to Bauer Publishing Company.  Bauer published some of the photographs and diary excerpts in recent issues of its Life & Style and In Touch magazines.  […]

If you are a small business owner then trademarks can be the difference between the life and death of your business. This may sound drastic, but the business world has become much more drastically intertwined over the past decade and a half. Even small businesses now cater to a global market. Federal trademark registration is […]