It's been an exciting few months for this writer: most notably, Cambridge University Press has agreed to publish my first scholarly monograph, Patents and Perverts: The Hidden Moral Agenda of American Design Law. (For a preview of the subject matter of the book, visit my NYU Law faculty profile page and click on the links to Parts 1 and 2 of a peer-reviewed piece to be published in late 2015 and early 2016 by Jurimetrics: The Journal of Law, Science, and Technology.

See, I keep telling you about the existence of copyright protection (or copyright pitfalls, depending on your perspective) in the fashion-design context, even under U.S. law.  In fact, the history and principles of American copyright-for-fashion are so messy idiosyncratic that my discussion of the subject will require a series of five articles, to be published in consecutive issues of the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law, starting this summer.

can be found here.

Colman, "Patents and Perverts" presentation at UQÀM (14.05.15) 

[Working draft of the paper on which this presentation is based is posted here.]

As World IP Review reports, some of Katy Perry's 'Left Shark' trademark applications have hit a snag at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  The TESS entry for one of the applications in question is posted below.  (Oh, and speaking of the World IP Review, you can read my musings on the (fairly) recent jury verdict in the "Blurred Lines" copyright infringement case here.)

The 2015 IP/Gender conference at American University's Washington College of Law was a smashing success; the video of the full event is posted here.  I presented "Patents and Perverts" -- now tentatively retitled "Design and Deviance" -- whose abstract is posted on SSRN.  If you're interested in my portion of the conference, if starts at the 5:02 mark.  (As always, Professor Rebecca Tushnet has done a wonderful public service by transcribing the event essentials.)

Also, in case you missed the Copyright Society's recent panel on IP-for-fashion (co-hosted with the NYU Law Media Collaborative), a video of that event is posted here.

Oh, and did you read this January 26th column on the "utility-design patent boundary" by my firm's Of Counsel, Yin Huang?  If not, you should check that out, too...