So... In the nearly three years since my last post on this blog, there have been important changes in just about every area of law and life. Many of those changes will require little (additional) elaboration here. Other changes, like those involving my own professional and geographic moves and scholarly projects, require more explanation and narration from me -- both of which might be better suited to a new blog, for reasons to be discussed in the coming weeks.

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.)