Posts Tagged ‘nbc’

Patent Attorneys in Prime Time

Monday, 28 February, 2011 08:57 Written by Mark Malek 0 Comments

By: Mark R. Malek

A new television show has come out that has made it into my top 5.  Of course, this goes behind my all time favorite show – Pardon The Interruption on ESPN.  The show is so good that I actually have a t-shirt.  Thanks to Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon for the great shows.

The show that I am referring to is Harry’s Law.  Have you figured out why I like it yet?  No?  The show is about a patent attorney (Kathy Bates) that has become so stressed out by the rigorous practice of patent law that she leaves her big cushy job and decides to take up practicing general law in a shoe store in the ghetto (she calls it the ghetto on the show – her words, not mine).  During the show she has made references to leaving her job where she was paid $600,000.  If anyone can catch the name of that firm for me, I’d appreciate an interview.

I get a kick out of the show for a number of reasons.  Of course, the whole patent attorney bit just kills me.  Never in my lifetime did I think that it was possible for a primetime show to be centered on a patent attorney.  In fact, patent attorneys are generally so boring that one of my law professors actually told me one time “patent attorneys are those people that do not have enough charisma to practice tax law!”  Now that’s a boring group.  Just think about it – how boring do you have to be to go to engineering school, and then go to law school and decide on a profession that puts you in front of a computer writing horribly long and very boring documents all day long?  I’m the exception, but outside of me, it’s a pretty boring group!

The other part that makes me giggle about the show is the many references to “the ghetto.”  I graduated from the University of Dayton and there was a “neighborhood” on campus of several houses owned by the university where the students lived.  You know where I’m going with this one…it was called “The Ghetto.”

I know this post does not deliver any kind of breaking intellectual property news, but I was watching a recorded episode tonight and I just felt like writing about it.  If you are looking for something new to watch, give Harry’s Law a try and let me know what you think.

Google and Viacom – A Copyright Revenge Story

Tuesday, 23 November, 2010 19:52 Written by Scott Nyman 1 Comment

By Scott Nyman

Google announced their interactive television platform earlier this year, promising to bridge the gap between content sourced from traditional broadcast and up-and-coming internet streaming services.  Running an adapted version of Google’s Android operating system (which has proven itself to be a magnet to intellectual property litigation, but that is a whole matter altogether…), the Google TV platform has already been integrated into select televisions and set top boxes. Google’s contender promises big things for the living room.

Recently, Google has been struggling to deliver the grand experience that it had been promising. Television networks have began blocking access to their online content through the Big G’s boxes, likely fearing a drop in the large revenues generated through broadcast advertising. So far, Google TV’s list of haters includes FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS and now Viacom. The Viacom family includes networks such as Comedy Central, CMT, BET, Spike, Nickelodeon, VH1 and the MTVs (all 200 of them).

The last entry in that list is particularly interesting, seeing how Viacom just recently lost their $1 billion copyright infringement suit against Google. In that case, Viacom claimed that Google’s slight of hand allowed the large scale infringement of Viacom’s copyrights through user postings on Google’s popular video sharing site, YouTube. In the ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Louis Stranton ruled against Viacom by stating, “mere knowledge of the prevalence of (copyright violations) in general is not enough” to make YouTube and Google liable.

Viacom plans to appeal the ruling as soon a possible. In the mean time, Viacom doesn’t seem hesitant to do everything in their power to make Google’s life difficult, even if they can only do it one MTV at a time.

The “Departure” of Conan O’Brien Brings Up Intellectual Property Issues

Thursday, 21 January, 2010 17:00 Written by Mark Malek 0 Comments

Gravatar Iconby Mark Malek

Conan O'BrienSo unless you go to bed at 8PM (which I wish I did) or you don’t have a television, you have probably heard that Conan O’Brien’s attempt at hosting the coveted 11:30 time slot for NBC’s late night talk show will be short lived.  NBC is bumping Conan and going back to Jay Leno.  Personally, I used to watch Leno as I was falling asleep and found his skits to be somewhat humorous – Jaywalking, Battle of the Jaywalk Allstars, Headlines, etc.  I never really stayed up late enough to watch Conan’s skits, but I am somewhat familiar with them – the talking picture thing, Triumph the Insult Dog (one of my personal favorites), etc.

As you probably know, the NBC late night debacle has been pretty contentious.  My personal favorite was during Conan’s monologue a few nights ago when he was noting that hosting the Tonight Show, even for a short period of time, was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.  He went on to give some advice to the kids out there – “you can do whatever you want to do… so long as Jay Leno doesn’t want to do it too.”

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