Keep safe on the water with these boating safety tips

As a long Independence Day weekend quickly approaches, many of us will be heading to lakes and rivers to relax. Unfortunately, these summer holidays usually see an uptick in tragic, avoidable incidents. The Arkansas Game & Commission has a website dedicated to boating safety, which we hope you'll visit. You can also download a free PDF of the Arkansas Boating Handbook. Some of the high points include:

• Boat operators born in 1986 or later must have an AGFC-approved operator's card in their possession. The course and exam cost $24.50 and is available online. There is no minimum age to take the exam.
• Make sure your liability insurance policy is current on your boat (for jet skis and boats 50 hp or more).
• Let a relative know where you're going in case of an emergency.
• Be sure to pack sun block. No one likes looking like a lobster at work after a holiday weekend.
• If you're going to be out at night, make sure all lights on the boat are operational.
• Don't overload your boat — most boats have a yellow and white capacity plate. I once saw a party barge with 20+ people on it plow the front end under the surface of the water. It threw many of the passengers to the floor of the boat. Luckily, no one was injured.
• Wear life jackets, especially when under power. Be prepared to throw a flotation device to anyone falling overboard. Make sure life jackets for kids are weight-appropriate.
• Keep a good lookout, and maintain a safe speed and distance from other boats. 
• Don't operate any boat under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Patrol boats can and will pull you over, and patrols increase on holidays.
• Don't litter, and avoid glass containers. There's nothing like a sliced foot to ruin a perfectly good weekend.

Enjoy your holiday weekend, and be safe out there! Peace!

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Dateline investigation of "paper reviews" used to deny claims

Check out this NBC Dateline series (there are 4 parts), which describes how State Farm and other insurance companies use a "paper review" process to deny claims. Non-doctors write reports that are signed by doctors, oftentimes without review of records by the actual doctor. Doctors sign 30-50 reports in "autograph sessions" without reviewing records, and the reports were often changed after being signed by doctors. The reports were written in a way slanted in favor of the insurance companies to downplay injuries, limit claim payments, and cut care. 

Part 2 of 4:

Part 3 of 4:

Part 4 of 4:

Trademark Office cancels trademarks for NFL's Washington franchise

The Washington Redskins are no more, at least as far as the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office is concerned. In a second decision issued by the Trademark Trial & Appeals Board (TTAB), the Board declared that the trademark registrations for the Redskins franchise should be canceled because all six marks are "disparaging" to Native Americans. This is yet another step in a long legal process. The TTAB's first decision to cancel the registrations was way back in 1999, which is long enough ago (barely) that I studied it in law school. The 1999 decision was overturned on a technicality in the federal court system.  

The decision is important to the NFL and its Washington franchise for several reasons. First, a trademark registration over 5 years old carries certain presumptions, including that it is valid, protectable, and insulated from most legal challenges. A registration punches the trademark owner's ticket into federal court anywhere in the country the owner needs to shut down someone unlawfully using the mark (especially for trademarks on a nationwide product like the NFL). A trademark registration also prevents any other person from getting a confusingly similar trademark at the Trademark Office. And, the trademark owner gets to use the ® symbol on its products.

However, in order to get a trademark registration, the trademark owner must comply with certain legal requirements. For instance, you can't get a trademark on the following things:

• anything immoral, deceptive, scandalous, disparaging (e.g., swear words, the Redskins name);
• wrongfully suggests an association with a person, groups, beliefs, or national symbols;
• contains a flag of the U.S., a state, or a foreign country;
• wrongfully suggests a geographic association with a product (e.g., Champagne is from France);
• contains the name, portrait, or signature of a living person or a dead president while his widow is still living;
• anything descriptive, mis-descriptive, or generic about a product or service; and
• anything likely to be confused with a previously-registered trademark that is still active.

As you can see, there are many pitfalls for the unwary in applying for trademark registrations.

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Now that the Redskins registrations have been canceled, the team can still elect to use the Redskins name, and it will continue to have common law trademark rights to the names. Trademark rights arise out of use, not registration, and simply by using a mark in commerce one acquires common law trademark rights. However, if the team or the NFL wants to enforce the Redskins common law trademarks, it faces additional hurdles in doing so — like proving it owns a valid trademark registration. That won't be terribly difficult for the NFL, but that type of burden is more difficult for a smaller business on a tight budget with a shorter period of use.

Trademarks are your brand, your public identity. Brands need to be well planned and protected. I've been a trademark lawyer for a decade. I've helped scores of clients vet hundreds of potential brand names, and I've obtained many a trademark registration. If you need help protecting your brand, please give me a call.

How long will my patent application take?

A couple of patent law professors run a great patent law blog called Patently-O, and they recently came up with a great chart showing how long it takes to get a patent issued once it's been filed — an average of 34 months. If you're interested in patents, you should check out Patently-O — it's got great commentary on most of the important patent cases from the last several years.

You can also check out the USPTO's Patent Dashboard, which I reported on a couple of years ago here. It has lots of information, updated monthly, on pendency statistics for patent applications. An excerpt appears below:

Chipping away at the monolith

I've been fighting State Farm in a couple of federal court cases in east Arkansas. I had to ask the Court to order State Farm to produce its claim handling materials. These are the documents that show whether you get a fair shake from your insurance company. Usually, even if the documents say what they're supposed to (platitudes, we call them), the insurance company didn't follow the guidelines. The judge agreed with my client, and order State Farm to produce those guidelines. There's a good synopsis at the Property Insurance Coverage blog, so check it out.