By: Emily Donohue

A trademark is a “word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others.” Registered trademarks are both valuable assets to companies and helpful to potential consumers evaluating a purchase. Building goodwill with consumers takes time, and without the protection of a registered trademark, a company’s reputation could be tarnished by a competitor selling deceptively similar products or services of inferior value.

The recognizable trademark of a trusted brand signals to a consumer that their purchase will conform to the quality they expect from the brand. Conversely, if a brand has a poor reputation, a consumer knows to avoid the product. Considering the economic value of a properly registered trademark, one would assume that companies doing business in the United States take great care to ensure their trademarks are protected. However, the recently updated rule from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) implies otherwise.

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By: Matthew Jurgensmeier

Machine learning —a subset of artificial intelligence that teaches a machine to complete a task through iteration— provides significant possibilities for the future of production across many mediums, including video, music, and text. As these machine learning technologies evolve, they present opportunities for users to increase their efficiency and focus on less structured tasks.  However, machine learning may also present problems on both a legal and a societal level.

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By: Jacob Plovanic

Counterfeits, knockoffs, and plagiarism have long plagued Amazon’s Marketplace, the e-commerce giant’s online storefront. In the 20 years that the company has allowed third-party sellers to retail to Amazon customers alongside its own products, third-party sales have ballooned to $160 billion, accounting for 58% of all Marketplace sales in 2018, making the site a focal point for intellectual property piracy of all stripes – copyright, trademark, and patent.  Continue reading →

By: Ben Cashdollar

There are no two-ways about it: robocalls are the worst. At one time or another everyone has been waiting to receive an important phone call, felt the paroxysm of equal-parts excitement and anxiety accompanying their phone’s ringing, only for that emotive maelstrom to be compounded with frustration and annoyance when the caller is revealed to be a robot informing them of an “exciting, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!” Unsatisfied by merely preying upon our emotions, robocallers prey upon our wallets as well – according to Consumers Union robocalls, and other such phone scams, result in more than $350 million in financial losses annually.

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By: Treja Jones

Despite the fact that privacy is not a constitutionally guaranteed right, people can reasonably expect that when they are alone, they are not being watched, recorded, or studied . . . or at least, that was true at one point. In today’s technologically advanced society, it could very well be that no matter where you are, or what you’re doing, you’re never actually alone; you’re always being recorded, watched, or tracked in some way, shape or form. Advancements in technology, such as video surveillance, facial recognition, and the like, were created with intentions of simplifying both the process of criminal investigation and the routines of everyday life. But how far is too far? Are you ever actually alone? Do you ever actually have privacy?

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