Articles From Daniel Kegan | Illinois State Bar Association

Cloze & Flesch vs. Jarndyce: In re comprehension & readability vs. legalese By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, December 2012 How readable is your brief, how comprehensible? Cloze and Flesch tests give objective measures.

Intellectual Improbabilities™ By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, December 2012 Eclectic snippets from recent events. PTO warns of insolicitous solicitations; INTA launches teen ed UnrealCampaign.com; ND CA issues ESI Guidelines; FTC recommends truth telling; Academia IP; Ars Gratia Artis; EU; etc.

Intellectual improbabilities™ By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, September 2012 Short summaries and comments on recent IP cases, Government requests for comment, and other notices.

Intellectual improbabilities™ By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, June 2012 An eclectic gathering of recent intellectual property news and cases.

PTO notes By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, March 2012 News updates regarding the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.

Trademark scam warning By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, March 2012 Be aware that private companies not associated with the United States Patent and Trademark Office often use trademark application and registration information from the USPTO’s databases to mail or e-mail trademark-related solicitations.

PTO focuses on feedback By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, December 2011 While the dedicated attention and oft’ times quick responses of Craig Morris and his team at the PTO are making communicating with the Trademark Office much more efficient, it still requires an experienced trademark professional to know the meaning of the diverse electronic choices and to efficiently evaluate how to respond to the non-automated examiners’ office actions.

Intellectual Improbabilities™ By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, June 2011 News updates affecting intellectual property attorneys.

Winning chances? Client relations, math, and ethics By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, June 2011 Clients and others often ask attorneys for the chances of winning a dispute. Attorneys often answer, but they should not. Mathematically the wrong question is asked; numerical answers likely violate legal ethics by incompetently providing incorrect and often deceptive information. A better response provides both valid case evaluation and client emotional support without fabricating false certainty.

Intellectual Improbabilities™ By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, April 2011 News updates affecting intellectual property attorneys.

Discovering Electronically Stored Information (ESI): Self-Reliance and FRCivP 26* By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, December 2010 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26 (b)(2)(B) now requires an early conference among attorneys to discuss and plan discovery, including Electronically Stored Information (ESI). Attorneys cannot simply delegate to clients or commercial services the responsibility of understanding ESI and ESI discovery planning. The attorney has a non- delegable responsibility to know, not only traditional discovery relevance but also enough about email, computers, file archiving, the client’s business, and human nature to competently supervise others. This article presents an efficient procedure for self-reliant attorneys and firms to successfully manage the ESI discovery process. Guidelines are presented for both Macintosh and Windows computers.

Intellectual Improbabilities™ By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, December 2010 Sad Sap $1.65b verdict favoring Oracle for admitted copyright liability. Judge should refer even clearly meritless mandamus writ when his spouse is on defendant's board (In re Specht, trademark suit). Baha'i organizational divorce 40 years later, where's the contempt. Judge Posner clarifies "exceptional Lanham Act cases."

Pennywise and pound foolish: Compilation copyrights and the limits of administrative deference By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, October 2010 Copyright claimants should consider registering their commercially important works individually, rather than relying on derivative copyrights, such as compilations, collective works.

Intellectual Improbabilities™ By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, June 2010 Recent developments in intellectual property law.

The grammar of intellectual property: Copyright is a noun, trademark is an adjective By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, March 2010 Clarifying the definitions of patent, trademark, and copyright, and how to use each term properly.

Dangerous delusions: Do it yourself, or don’t By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, November 2009 Many once-arcane intellectual property (IP) procedures are now accessible to lay businesspersons and citizens.

Intellectual improbabilities By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, September 2009 Recent updates in Intellectual Property law.

Intellectual Improbabilities By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, May 2009 Updates in Intellectual Property law.

TrAid names aids trademark creation By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, May 2008 Good trademark selection avoids litigation and builds brand equity.

Securing and collecting intellectual property collateral By Daniel Kegan Commercial Banking, Collections, and Bankruptcy, December 2007 Intellectual property has become a salient, yet confusing, asset in national and global business and financing.

Securing and collecting intellectual property collateral By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, December 2007 Intellectual property has become a salient, yet confusing, asset in national and global business and financing.

Brand Extension—Popular and perilous: American Red Cross expansion invokes Laches By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, September 2007 In the past three decades, one analyst concludes “intellectual property and intangible assets have become the dominant assets of major corporations.”

Editor’s note By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, March 2007 In October 2006 the Intellectual Property Section presented an ISBA LawEd seminar entitled, “To Disclose or Not to Disclose—The Benefits and Limitations of Non-Disclosure Agreements.”

Editor’s notes By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, January 2007 A message from Editor Dan Kegan.

Questions and complexities in disclosure By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, January 2007 A list of items to consider regarding disclosure.

Probate trademarks: death, reincarnation, and survival of intellectual property rights By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, October 2006 It was a dark and stormy night when the dame appeared in the doorway of Mark Trade,™ intellectual property investigator.

Intellectual Improbabilities™ By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, June 2006 Data Gone. Jacob Citrin, accused of wiping out all the data on the computer he used at work before he announced his resignation faces a lawsuit by his former employer, a group of affiliated real estate companies, under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act., 18 USC 1030.

Charity solicitation confusion By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, December 2005 The Lanham Act may be the major statute regulating trademarks, banning unfair competition, and dealing with consumer confusion, but there are many other relevant laws.

Stoller strikes out: Attorney fees and cancellation against frequent litigant By Daniel Kegan Intellectual Property, October 2005 Trademark law is founded on protecting the consumer from source confusion and buying the wrong goods and services.

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