In our ongoing coverage of the Supreme Court this term (apparently we’ve turned into a news feed), this week the United States Supreme Court weighed in on alcohol beverage distribution issues (Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Assn v. Tennessee Alcohol Beverage Commission, decided June 26, 2019). Justice Alito wrote the opinion for the majority (7-2), Justice Gorsuch wrote a dissent joined by Justice Thomas. The case is somewhat convoluted, so I’ll try to stay focused…

According to statue, someone could not register a trademark if it “[c]onsists of or comprises immoral, deceptive, or scandalous matter; or matter which may disparage or falsely suggest a connection with persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or bring them into contempt, or disrepute; or a geographical indication which, when used on or in connection with wines or spirits, identifies a place other than the origin of the goods and is first used on or…

I am a pretty big fan of mashup. If you haven’t heard of mashup music before, take a listen to Pandamonium [sic] by the White Panda: https://thewhitepanda.bandcamp.com/track/pandamonium-continuous-mix. “A mashup is a creative work, usually in a form of a song, created by blending two or more pre-recorded songs, usually by overlaying the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the instrumental track of another.” (Wikipedia) In the case of the White Panda…

I was supposed to write the blog post for last week. You may be thinking, “Last week? What was last week’s post?” Or you may be thinking, “We were missing photos of Lola!” Because, yeah, my post last week was a photo of my dog sniffing a can with an OGS can coozie on it. Deep thoughts there. I could have felt guilty and rebounded with an opus of legal opinion. However, that’s not what’s…

Here is the scenario: You’re a restaurateur and are ready to move on. You own the restaurant’s assets and the real estate where the location sits. You’ve found a Buyer! But, the Buyer can only get a conventional loan to purchase the real estate and doesn’t have the cash to purchase the restaurant’s assets. What now? Enter, seller financing. What is Seller financing anyway? The most common type of “seller financing” most people are probably…

What does Champagne, Roquefort cheese, and Darjeeling tea have in common – other than a very high likelihood of being in my kitchen? They are all geographic indicators of a specific good. Or in other words, the name tells you where it came from – as in a location in the world, not just a company. Champagne is created in the Champagne region in France, otherwise, it is sparkling wine. Roquefort cheese is a very…