Law Practice
Jan. 29, 2014
The shape of things to come
A new case illustrates how hard it is becoming to protect product shapes, despite no less than three different intellectual property disciplines that could, in theory, protect them. By Mark S. Lee
Mark S. Lee
Rimon PCEmail: mark.lee@rimonlaw.com
Univ of Illinois COL; Champaign IL
Mark is also adjunct professor of intellectual Property and entertainment law at the USC Gould School of Law, and the author of "Entertainment and Intellectual Property Law" (Thomson Reuters 2018).
The shape of a smoking "hookah" is not copyrightable, according to a recent 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision. The case straightforwardly applies existing law, but it also illustrates how hard it is becoming to protect product shapes, despite no less than three different intellectual property disciplines that could, in theory, protect them.
Inhale Inc. v. Starbuzz Tobacco Inc., 2014 DJDAR 281 (9th Cir. Jan. 9, 2014), was a copyright infringement case involving the ...For only $95 a month (the price of 2 article purchases)
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