Girl fight!!! But seriously, when I heard about this case the only thought that came to my head was "yawn". I am not a big toy guy, and being some what of a "man's man" I couldn't care less over two doll companies battling over who did what. I understand the angle though, and the article on the hearings was a good read.
In a nut shell last thursday, Mattel Inc., made famous for their Barbie doll line, headed back to court to once
again try to prove that MGA Entertainment Inc. stole the toy company's
intellectual property when they created the Bratz doll line a ten years ago. Why? Mattel Inc. believes that MGA Entertainment Inc. did some top-secret missions to involving disguises, fake business cards, and dummy voices(Oh I can see the Saturday Night Live skit of that top-secret operation now). The mission worked SO well they say that the spies were able to gain access to competitors' show rooms at toy fairs, got information on
rivals' newest products, price lists and marketing strategies(according to
court documents). Wait, it gets better...Mattel (Barbie) says that MGA stole trade secrets by telling Mattel employees from Mexico, Cananda, and the U.S. to download Mttel documents before coming to work for MGA. Mattel also states that several Mattel workers were hired in Mexico by MGA stole company documents that helped MGA start up a Mexico division very quickly using Mattel's mexican playbook.
The question I asked myself while reading is why? Why would someone go through this much trouble to get trade secrets and documents for a little girl (or maybe little boy's) toy doll? Then I read that MGA Entertainment Inc. at its peek made 1 billion dollars in revenue! Everything began to make sense and fall into place. This isn't a fight over a doll. This is a fight about cash! Cash revenue that the Bratz doll was taking away from the powerful Barbie doll line in the same market. At the end of the day something as innocent as a Barbie doll can be ruined in the capitalistic country and fought over as if it was World War 3, equipped with secret agents wearing disguised steal secrets, allegedly. I understand where Mattel is coming from; they were here first and the Bratz doll is treading on their territory. At what costs though?
"It is a colossal waste of money," says Sean McGowan, toy industry analyst
at Needham & Co. "I understand they wanted to send a message that they
protect their intellectual property....Message delivered."
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Week 8 BOC: Progress in getting a Lawyer
Have I been able to wrangle up a lawyer to interview? Unfortunatley no, I have struck out miserably. My mother asked her former employee who has a brother who is a lawyer, but unfortunatly, the siblings are going through a rough patch right now and are not speaking to eachother. My father gave me a number to a lawyer buddy of his from college, but the number is no longer in service. My older brother has not returned any of my phone calls and/or text messages (which means no Zach, stop asking me). In all, I have exhausted my immediate family and friends resources; amazingly it seems as if lawyers like to be paid to speak! Who would of thought of that!
There is still hope though, its time to buckle down and go through my list of possible lawyers. All 35 of them. Wish me luck!
There is still hope though, its time to buckle down and go through my list of possible lawyers. All 35 of them. Wish me luck!
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Week 7 EOC: Plans
My classmates and I have been working diligently this quarter; keeping our eyes on the prize. From our humble beginnings with little known knowledge of the subject (patents, copyrights, and trademarks), to studying our butts off for our midterm, and now we are seasoned veterans on the subject ready to go into the real world and stretch our brain muscle. We now have to go on a search for someone who has vast knowledge of the subject of intellectual property, in short, we need to interview a lawyer. How am I going to wrangle a lawyer to answer my questions of intellectual property within my field of photography? I have a few ideas...
The first thing you should know about me is that I am a passionate person, have almost no shame, ambitious, and almost ignorantly confident (which gets me into trouble sometimes). Be that as it may; my plans for finding a lawyer to annoy, I mean interview, with a series of ten questions about intellectual property within my career field are mildly simple. First I am going to contact my immediate family, namely my older brother, who has needed lawyers to protect himself from his brushes with the law. My brother is my first choice because although he is a large menacing figure, he is unusually charismatic and is a great judge of personality; keeping a tight circle of trust outside of our immediate family. Once I exhaust my family's resources I believe I will have to move on to phase 2 in the search for a lawyer, I call it Operation Plan B.
Operation Plan B is just a fancy way of saying I am going to open up my laptop, attach to a Wi-Fi network and Google lawyers in my city of Las Vegas that specialize in intellectual property cases. Then one-by-one I will go fishing and make phone calls working through the contact information of law practices I uncover, hoping that something bites. If this also fails, I plan to make follow up calls to law firms who never picked up my phone calls and/or showing up unannounced (I have no shame) showing that I am persistent about my need of a lawyer to interview.
If this fails as well; desperation will set in and I will use social media as my Ali. I will flood the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and use the power of email to get my need out into the unsuspecting public. Bottom line is that I have never been one to take no for an answer and some how, some way I will achieve my goal of setting up a simple 20 minute interview with a lawyer to answer my questions on intellectual property pertaining to my field of digital photography.
The first thing you should know about me is that I am a passionate person, have almost no shame, ambitious, and almost ignorantly confident (which gets me into trouble sometimes). Be that as it may; my plans for finding a lawyer to annoy, I mean interview, with a series of ten questions about intellectual property within my career field are mildly simple. First I am going to contact my immediate family, namely my older brother, who has needed lawyers to protect himself from his brushes with the law. My brother is my first choice because although he is a large menacing figure, he is unusually charismatic and is a great judge of personality; keeping a tight circle of trust outside of our immediate family. Once I exhaust my family's resources I believe I will have to move on to phase 2 in the search for a lawyer, I call it Operation Plan B.
Operation Plan B is just a fancy way of saying I am going to open up my laptop, attach to a Wi-Fi network and Google lawyers in my city of Las Vegas that specialize in intellectual property cases. Then one-by-one I will go fishing and make phone calls working through the contact information of law practices I uncover, hoping that something bites. If this also fails, I plan to make follow up calls to law firms who never picked up my phone calls and/or showing up unannounced (I have no shame) showing that I am persistent about my need of a lawyer to interview.
If this fails as well; desperation will set in and I will use social media as my Ali. I will flood the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and use the power of email to get my need out into the unsuspecting public. Bottom line is that I have never been one to take no for an answer and some how, some way I will achieve my goal of setting up a simple 20 minute interview with a lawyer to answer my questions on intellectual property pertaining to my field of digital photography.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Week 6 EOC: "Illicit"
I have a confession. My mother, the women who gave me life, is a criminal. She knowingly breaks the law at an average of once a month, and the worst part about it, she is not alone. She runs a criminal enterprise with help from her criminal friends. What is her illegal business? My mother and her friends conduct "purse parties" about once a month, selling knock off bags for a fraction of the price. I used to rationalize that she is not hurting anyone, and that her "purse parties" were a fun way to save money to look more like a high status diva. Everything changed once I saw the move"Illicit: The Dark Trade"
Many people share my original view on the harmless selling of knock-off fashion merchandise. The movie "Illicit: The Dark Trade" showed that this seemingly innocent fun for retired mothers and housewives is just the tip of the iceberg for the black and grey market. Think about it; how do we know that these knock-off purses weren't stuffed with kilos of cocaine or heroine upon shipment to small town USA? Or the same cargo hold that those same persons are used to ship the fashion goods, aren't also used to ship young women for trade as sex slaves? At the end of the day, it is just another illegal service that is being smuggled into America.
This movie really amazed me and opened my eyes unto the illegal world that we live among everyday. The question is how can you stop such a unstoppable market? The problem also is that WE are the ones largely fueling this type of business; whether it be drugs, prescription medicine, and/or human organs. I have come to the realization that, along with my mother, I too am a contributor. Bottom line is that as long as there is a need or a strong want for their style of production, there will always be a market for it.
Many people share my original view on the harmless selling of knock-off fashion merchandise. The movie "Illicit: The Dark Trade" showed that this seemingly innocent fun for retired mothers and housewives is just the tip of the iceberg for the black and grey market. Think about it; how do we know that these knock-off purses weren't stuffed with kilos of cocaine or heroine upon shipment to small town USA? Or the same cargo hold that those same persons are used to ship the fashion goods, aren't also used to ship young women for trade as sex slaves? At the end of the day, it is just another illegal service that is being smuggled into America.
This movie really amazed me and opened my eyes unto the illegal world that we live among everyday. The question is how can you stop such a unstoppable market? The problem also is that WE are the ones largely fueling this type of business; whether it be drugs, prescription medicine, and/or human organs. I have come to the realization that, along with my mother, I too am a contributor. Bottom line is that as long as there is a need or a strong want for their style of production, there will always be a market for it.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Week 5 EOC: Patent Trolls
What is a Patent Troll? Is it a disgustingly green monster covered in warts, that lives under a bridge, and assigns patents on the weekends? Nope. The exact definition for a "Patent Troll" is someone who sues for patent infringement, but who does not make or sell any products using the patented technology. Are you scared yet? Well you may not be, but "Patent Trolls" are scaring the pants off of many huge corporations.
The most infamous "Patent Troll" to date is a patent lawyer named Raymond E. Stauffer. Mr. Stauffer became infamous when he was shopping at a New Jersey mall one day, simply shopping for bow ties at Brooks Brothers. He noticed something interesting about the bow ties on display, they all had old patent numbers on their labels. I can only imagine how many people looked at those old numbers and never gave it a second thought. Where the company, employees, and most customers overlooked could eventually make Mr. Stauffer a very wealthy man. Due to his profession's background he knew that the retailer would have to come out of pocket for violating a law that bands companies from marking products with old and invalided patent numbers. He would have settled out of court for $25,000, but the retailer went to war with him; now he should be awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Since he fruitfull find, more than 300 lawsuits have been put together by similar "Patent Trolls", inspired by Mr. Stauffer." Coporations are spooked and many are being advised not to mark their items with any patent numbers at all to avoid similar law suits about items that "slipped through the crack." I applaud Mr. Stauffer for sticking it to the man.
I think it is amazing that something so small and insignificant as patent numbers could cause such a scare in the corporate world and could be financially beneficial to a regular everyday consumer. I am not surprised that the number of "Patent Troll" lawsuits has spiked, it even has me contimplating attempting such a lawsuit. Why should we feel bad about a corporations losing money, because someone has an unfair advantage. It happens to us, the consumer everyday. Especially with the difficulty for a individual to obtain a patent for their amazing invention or work, while huge corporations hand out patents like its never going out of style. So do your thing "Patent Trolls"; because in the recession our country is currently in, it feels good to know that the "little guy" won a battle or two.
The most infamous "Patent Troll" to date is a patent lawyer named Raymond E. Stauffer. Mr. Stauffer became infamous when he was shopping at a New Jersey mall one day, simply shopping for bow ties at Brooks Brothers. He noticed something interesting about the bow ties on display, they all had old patent numbers on their labels. I can only imagine how many people looked at those old numbers and never gave it a second thought. Where the company, employees, and most customers overlooked could eventually make Mr. Stauffer a very wealthy man. Due to his profession's background he knew that the retailer would have to come out of pocket for violating a law that bands companies from marking products with old and invalided patent numbers. He would have settled out of court for $25,000, but the retailer went to war with him; now he should be awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Since he fruitfull find, more than 300 lawsuits have been put together by similar "Patent Trolls", inspired by Mr. Stauffer." Coporations are spooked and many are being advised not to mark their items with any patent numbers at all to avoid similar law suits about items that "slipped through the crack." I applaud Mr. Stauffer for sticking it to the man.
I think it is amazing that something so small and insignificant as patent numbers could cause such a scare in the corporate world and could be financially beneficial to a regular everyday consumer. I am not surprised that the number of "Patent Troll" lawsuits has spiked, it even has me contimplating attempting such a lawsuit. Why should we feel bad about a corporations losing money, because someone has an unfair advantage. It happens to us, the consumer everyday. Especially with the difficulty for a individual to obtain a patent for their amazing invention or work, while huge corporations hand out patents like its never going out of style. So do your thing "Patent Trolls"; because in the recession our country is currently in, it feels good to know that the "little guy" won a battle or two.
Monday, August 6, 2012
Week 4 EOC: Death Race Jeapordy
Todays class was very fun and exciting, but I did learn a lot of definitions and
patent terms in the process. Why? An amusing, yet cut throat version of
Jeapordy was played amongst us students called Death Race Jeapordy. Each
student had to create their own Jeapordy game out of power point, and create
twenty questions using 5 different categories. I myself kept the categories
light and commical (Feelin' Blank, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Show Me the
Money, Gimme GimmeGimme), but I left my questions challenging for the
class.
The first rounds went well. We didn't know exactly what the prize for succeeding in the game would be, but this helped motivate us like a carrot hung from a string to get a mule motivated to walk forward. As the questions from another students game was being presented I immediatley became astonished on how familiar the patent terms and defintions were to me. After thumbing through 140 pages of defintions in our text books I am surprised that I was able to answer some questions off the top of my head. Now I am not saying Mr. Pinto is a eduacational genius, but the man does know what he is doing.
By the time it came to "Death Race Jeapordy" portion of our program, bonds amongst groups were being formed like a cheap reality show; students were making sure to link up with the best and brightest minds of the class. Ones our 4 groups were created, war began as we battle amongst the 4 groups of students making sure we didn't help another group out by speaking to loud or not covering our terms as we wrote out the answers on the board. Once the dust settled, my group became victorious in our Jeapordy battle, and to the victor comes the spoils. I was awarded 29 extra credit points to be used on my midterm the following week. What does that mean? All I need to get on my midterm is a 71% to receive a 100% on my midterm test, which is awesome. The extra points are amazing, but the fact of the matter is that due to the creation and involvement in the Death Race Jeapordy game that Mr. Pinto created, I might not even need those 29 extra points at all. Goodtimes!
The first rounds went well. We didn't know exactly what the prize for succeeding in the game would be, but this helped motivate us like a carrot hung from a string to get a mule motivated to walk forward. As the questions from another students game was being presented I immediatley became astonished on how familiar the patent terms and defintions were to me. After thumbing through 140 pages of defintions in our text books I am surprised that I was able to answer some questions off the top of my head. Now I am not saying Mr. Pinto is a eduacational genius, but the man does know what he is doing.
By the time it came to "Death Race Jeapordy" portion of our program, bonds amongst groups were being formed like a cheap reality show; students were making sure to link up with the best and brightest minds of the class. Ones our 4 groups were created, war began as we battle amongst the 4 groups of students making sure we didn't help another group out by speaking to loud or not covering our terms as we wrote out the answers on the board. Once the dust settled, my group became victorious in our Jeapordy battle, and to the victor comes the spoils. I was awarded 29 extra credit points to be used on my midterm the following week. What does that mean? All I need to get on my midterm is a 71% to receive a 100% on my midterm test, which is awesome. The extra points are amazing, but the fact of the matter is that due to the creation and involvement in the Death Race Jeapordy game that Mr. Pinto created, I might not even need those 29 extra points at all. Goodtimes!
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