Although the LAW OF FASHION LinkedIn group is active as ever, you've probably noticed that this blog has been pretty quiet lately.  That's because this writer, one Charles Colman, has been hunkered down for the past few weeks, putting the finishing touches on the initial installment of his treatise, Colman on Fashion Law (LexisNexis-Matthew Bender). This first volume deals with copyright law; sections on trademark and patent will follow next year, exploring the fashion-specific aspects of each body of law.  After that... well just you wait!  (You might recall my saying something about a book for Oxford University Press.  Yes, this started off as that project... then this happened.)

This writer, one Charles E. Colman, is excited to be giving a 1.5 hour-ish CLE on copyright protection for fashion design under U.S. law TOMORROW, 3/28/13, at 10 A.M. (NYC).  The course agenda and registration information are posted on Lawline's website.

[UPDATE (4/3/13): The video of the CLE has been edited and reposted on the Lawline website.  Disclaimer: The occasional stock photos of courtrooms, fashion design studios, etc., were added without my knowledge; please disregard...]

--------------------------------------------------

Legislative resources can be found here ("laws passed in the United States [from 1783 to 1976] relating to copyright") and here ("full text of all versions of the Copyright Act of the United States from the 1909 Act to the present").

C. Scott Hemphill & Tim Wu, Parallel Exclusion, 122 Yale L.J. 1182 (2013) [available at SSRN]

At last, word of the trademarklawpocalypse will reach far and wide, by way of this Samsung commercial, to be aired during the SUPER BOWL:

For commentary, see this article by The Hollywood Reporter's Eriq Gardner, the same reporter who first connected the dots, Da Vinci Code-style, between Mayan prophecy and the current state of trademark law.

[SUPPLEMENT (2/7/13): See also IPBrief's "NFL Coerces Man Into Giving up 'Harbowl' Trademark Filing".]

Well, August was just awful: humid, hot, and all the rest of that bad stuff. Fortunately, it's over, which means fun activities like CLEs and Fashion's Night Out are on the horizon. Or rather, somewhere between the horizon and my present location, as the particular CLE I have in mind is taking place tonight, and FNO is tomorrow. The latter almost certainly entails more swag, but hey, the first event will keep you licensed as an attorney. So let's consider them complementary.

Complimentary, however, the CLE is not. For details on pricing and registration, visit the relevant New York County Lawyers' Association event page. In truth, it's not a bad deal for a three-hour CLE.

Here are some of the more pertinent non-financial details:

2nd Annual Review of Fashion Law

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

6:00 P.M. - 9:00 P.M.

NYCLA, 2nd Floor Auditorium

14 Vesey Street, New York, NY 10017