Week 8 EOC: Bratz vs. Matell

What a foolish battle between two brands. Sure they both are dolls that can be dressed up, but they are two completely different types of dolls. Bratz are a little edgy maybe even slightly trashy. Barbies are a little more reserved not quite as scandalous. However Mattel things the design was stolen due to the fact that the creator of Bratz was working at Mattel at the time he came up with Bratz. Now that doesn't mean that the design was stolen or anything but Mattel seems to believe that they are owed something and wanting the destruction of them. The truth of it is that Mattel didn't want them succeeding from their company and taking away any and all ideas in which were used to create the new dolls, Bratz. They took them to court to battle it out. It's been an ongoing affair. "Mattel won the rights to the $1 billion-plus Bratz franchise earlier this year in a lawsuit against MGA and former Mattel Barbie designer Carter Bryant, who invented the Bratz concept while under contract to Mattel."(
http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/12/04/us-mattel-bratz-idUSTRE4B311220081204) Then back in 2008 a federal jude ruled for MGA (Bratz) to stop selling their dolls, and stopped them from using the name, and also that hundred's of Bratz products infringed upon on copyrights owned by Mattel. Now fast foreword years later and they're still battling it out in court. Even MGA gets awarded money at one point. It's just a back and forth deal that may never end...

Week 8 BOC: Progress On Final Project

I'm at the point of where I need to make my questions. I wanted to form my questions before I actually went ahead and contacted a lawyer, so that way I would be prepared and not stumbling over things not knowing what to say. However, I do have a list and on that list there is one that I want to try out first because he's an intellectual property lawyer and also he's a photographer so what better person to use than someone similar to me. Then there are others that look really promising as well. My question will be to the point and well delivered so they do not get confuse with something else and will be easy to answer. I don't want to take too much of the lawyers time. They do get costly. This will be free work for them though.

As far as the rest of the class, I am all caught up. My blog is up to date as well as my daily tweets.

Week 7 EOC: Lawyers

1. Kenehan & Lambertsen Limited 702-997-1732

2. Weide & Miller, Ltd. 888-336-9296

3. Kolesar & Leatham 702-997-8358

4. Mary F. Chapman 702-800-3362

5. Marquis Aurbach Coffing 702-979-2405

6. Rosenfeld & Bauman 702-583-6926

7. Borghese Legal 702-382-0200

8. Vincent Kostiw (rockstarlaw) 702-508-8510

9. Greenberg Traurig 702-938-6888

10. Jennifer Craft 702-796-5555

Week 6 EOC: Illicit Trade

From drugs to handbags, illicit trade is a huge epidemic. It takes place in our own backyards, but is much more common in places like China. The conditions for all illegal trade are based upon the same thing, someone wants something for cheap and they don't care how they get it. This is quite a problem because in the process someone is going to get hurt along the way. It could be a cheap product or just the nature of the trade. It's one shrouded with secrets and plenty of money to go around. Dirty money that is. That money needs to get cleaned so people establish business and those sometimes are construction companies that spend the money to buy the supplies, contractors and whatever else they need. Then they sell the finished housing structure and get "clean" money. Unfortunately shortcuts are taken and buildings are not up to code and really no one should live in them. All they care about is the bottom line, and getting their money... Illicit trade starts out small with just a few knock off products here and there but it's those that set the big picture of it all.

Week 5 EOC: Patent Trolls

You can't really expect much from a patent troll, these are people who's job it is to find people who are using patents that in most cases have expired. In other words they are trying to take a shortcut and no pay to refresh it. This is viewed as a form of stealing, which is against the law. The article by the Wall Street Journal points out that, "patents have a life span of 17 or 20 years. To keep them valid, companies must pay maintenance fees every four years. Once they expire, the holder is expected to remove the numbers from products." Simple enough right? Not for the ones wanting to spend a little less. Patent trolls are performing a worthwhile service though and they believe it themselves, "Every plaintiff who brings one of these cases is a private attorney general who is doing a service to the United States, and I'm doing the same," says Mr. Stauffer, a lawyer in Roseland, N.J." However all these cases can be seen as a waste of time, money, and resources because these aren't hurting anyone, or causing damage of any kind. The fact that so many of these types of cases exists tells us there's a lot of people with too much time on there hands. Take Mr Tompkins for example, he heard about all the court rulings so, "He and his wife then spent hours poring over Internet advertising to check for outdated patents on products, a process that can be relatively simple because patents are numbered chronologically." Makes it sound simple enough that anyone can do it almost, but you do have to know what to look for. Perhaps hiding the patent numbers a little better will keep the trolls away.

Original article: 

New Breed of Patent Claim Bedevils Product Makers By DIONNE SEARCEY