iPad iPad iPad iPadâ„¢

Love it! Can’t wait to try it.

A few minutes after watching Steve Jobs demo Apple’s new tablet computer, I checked Google and found that it was packed with iPad postings with new ones streaming in. The news hadn’t even been posted on the Apple start page yet.

However, further down the Google listings, it appears that the name has been in use for over a decade. Fujitsu had US trademark rights on the name for quite a while and may still, perhaps. In 2001, Fujitsu iPads, which had been anemic grocery store point-of-sale computers, were used as a database by volunteers at the Vietnam Memorial. Fujitsu was declared to have abandoned the mark in April 2009, but apparently made a subsequent effort to reclaim it. Meanwhile a company that was apparently fronting for Apple has been registering the Mark around the world — in Europe, Canada and Hong Kong. This activity lead to rumors that the new tablet would be call iPad.

The flood of iPad commentary was not restricted to the media that follows technology. The Motley Fool investor news, for example, had posted its analysis before the afternoon was over. Legal publications got into the act, too. The LTN Law Technology News, not to miss a breaking news story, reprinted two hastily-written stories from other on-line legal publications.

But not everybody was that quick. There was no story posted this afternoon in the Tablet Lawyer blog. But then, why would Tablet Lawyer care? Its a PC.

CLT

Category: Uncategorized

Caveat to “Public Radio to the People?”

My post yesterday on the sale of WDUQ was not intended to comment negatively on the management and staff of WDUQ. However, it could have been taken that way and one commenter did just that. He states that the GM of WDUQ is outstanding and suggests that WDUQ does not need outside help to save the station — again.

CLT

Category: Uncategorized

Linda E. Plowman, Tell Me Something Interesting About Copyright Law.

Linda E. Plowman is a Pittsburgh lawyer with a background in entertainment law, intellectual property law and advertising. Here’s what she had to say about copyright law.

PLBT: Linda E. Plowman, tell me something interesting about copyright law.

LEP: Most people don’t realize that once they create an original work of authorship and it is “fixed” (written down, recorded, on a computer for more than a “transitory duration”, etc.), it is immediately protected by copyright law.

PLBT: Really, don’t you have to publish it in some way?

LEP: Not anymore. There is no longer a publication requirement. The story doesn’t end there, but essentially this is a major development in what is required for copyright protection, first enacted in the Copyright Act of 1976, effective 1/1/78.

PLBT: Copyright law in America has existed a lot longer than that, hasn’t it?

LEP: Oh yes, it originated – thanks to our forefathers’ foresight – in the U.S. Constitution, Article 1 Section 8 Clause 8.

PLBT: What then, are the basic requirements for the Federal Copyright Law to apply?

LEP: For a quick rule of thumb, think of this equation:
ORIGINAL (attributable to an author)
+ WORK OF AUTHORSHIP (falls into one of ~8 categories of works protectable by federal copyright law)
+ FIXED IN A TANGIBLE MEDIUM OF EXPRESSION (written, painted, embedded, recorded, on a computer screen for a period of ‘more than transitory duration’)
= PROTECTED BY FEDERAL COPYRIGHT LAW.

**********************************************************************************************

This conversation with Attorney Linda E. Plowman on copyright law will pick up in another post, when she will continue to tell us something interesting.

Category: Uncategorized

Public Radio to the People?

Charlie Humphrey, Executive Director of Pittsburgh Filmmakers and maven of other leading organizations for the arts, is also Pittsburgh’s biggest fan of public radio. He argues in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette Forum section that WDUQ, which is the home of the NPR news package and the only broadcaster in the City of serious jazz, should not be permitted to be diverted from its mission when it is sold by Duquesne University. Humphrey argues that the station’s broadcast license, which must be purchased by a non-profit entity, is likely to be acquired by an evangelical religious organization who will turn the station into a full-time fund raising machine.

Good point. Public radio in the WDUQ style, would be a great loss to the community — perhaps irrevocable. Charlie suggests that the employees of WDUQ should form a nonprofit corporation and buy the station. Also a good idea. But does the WDUQ staff have an executive who has the leadership skills needed to make such an ambitious plan happen? Probably not. There is probably only one person in this town who cares enough, knows enough and knows the people who would be willing and able fund the venture. Yes, that person is Charlie Humphrey.

CLT

Category: Uncategorized

Its a New Game.

The Supreme Court struck down two precedents that had upheld restrictions on corporate funding of political broadcasts, a decision that will have a broad impact on how campaigns are run.

In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a 5-4 majority, held that the First Amendment did not permit Congress to punish citizens, or associations composed of citizens, for expressing political opinions and struck down provisions of the McCain-Feingold Act. The majority held that there there was no principled way to distinguish between political commentary on media such as Fox News and similar commentary from a non-media group or organization, including through blogs.

This ruling happened, by coincidence, to have occurred the day following a game-changing Senate special election. Now the new game has new rules.

CLT

Category: Uncategorized

Deep End May Be Pretty Shallow.

There seems to be a certain amount of interest in the blawgs concerning the ABC prime time series “Deep End” which premieres on Thursday night.

It seems to be Grey’s Anatomy for lawyers. Instead of interns, they stock the show with new lawyers going to work for a Wall Street lawfirm. However, the creator of the series tells the WSJ Law Blog that there will be lots of highjinx a la Grey’s Anatomy. That show managed to tell pretty good stories, and display first class writing and acting, despite the characters’ implausible penchant for serially trading bed partners. Whether Deep End can match the quality of Grey’s Anatomy remains to be seen. However, the trailers running this week don’t leave much of an impression of depth.

Oh well, its only television.

CLT

Category: Uncategorized

Potpouri

– The New York Times is about to go back to charging for access on the web, according to Althouse. As she points out, that will kill all of the blog links, which must bring it many readers. Nobody will put a link in a blog post to a site that requires membership.

– Slate reports that a Silicon Valley gossip blog Valleywag offered prizes for evidence relating to the supposed Apple Tablet that rumor says will be announced in 10 days. Apple says it doesn’t have a tablet, but it nevertheless doesn’t appreciate the intentional interference with the confidentiality agreements between it and its employees and will sue over revelation of trade secrets. If you are interested in the subject of trade secrets and non-compete agreements, visit the West Virginia Business Litigation Blog.

– The Freakonomics Blog reports a study that attempts to quantify the value of the Minnesota Vikings to Minneapolis residents as $530 per person, as a kind of psychic income. This valuation was greeted with brickbats in the comments section. One commenter from Minnesota said that he would gladly sell his share to Los Angeles for $400 per year.

– Althouse says that Obama didn’t have anything particular to say about Martha Coakley, Democratic candidate for US Senate, when he flew up to Boston to give an endorsement speech. Of course, the point wasn’t Coakley anyway, it was the mystical 60th vote for cloture on health care.

– In more Coakley news, a poll by Politico purportedly shows her in free-fall, not because of health care, say the pundits, but because of prosecutions of innocent people during her tenure as Mass. AG.

– Speaking of senators, what do you get when you cross an ex-Senator from Tennessee and an ex-Senator from Illinois? And why does a Haitian eat only one egg? The answers are in the comments.

CLT

Category: Uncategorized

That’s K&L Gates with a “B”.

Well, the WSJ Law Blog just broke the news. K&L Gates Chairman Peter Kalis has been quoted as saying that his firm broke the Billion Dollar barrier in annual revenues. That puts K&LG in the top thirteen, more or less, world-wide. Congratulations to all the Pittsburghers who supplied the “K&L” part. Also, congratulations to the firm’s clients, who supplied the “B”.

CLT

Category: Uncategorized

Swinging For the Fences.

Were you surprised when Allegheny County assessed the Rivers Casino at a whopping $199 Million? According to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, it is the highest assessment of any casino in the state.

Actually, one wonders what the calculation that brought about the $199 Million assessment figure looks like. Remember, Allegheny County is supposedly assessing on a 2002 base year. The situation is further complicated by the fact that there are three accepted approaches to assessing commercial properties which may, in the hands of different experts, generate widely diverse values.

For income-generating facilities like shopping centers, office buildings and the like, the income approach is generally preferred. Since casinos generate revenue, this would seem to be a good approach. But a casino is so unique that valuing it under any of the three valuation methods presents a lot of puzzles. Rivers Casino is not performing too well and cannot meet its existing burden of taxes and pledged contributions to various community projects. Like a sports franchise, it could well be losing money but command a hefty sales price if sold to another sucker investor. Comparison to assessments of other casinos seems to suggest that the Rivers assessment is too high. For example, the Meadows Racetrack and Casino is assessed at about 10% of Rivers but earns more.

The other two methods of appraisal are the “comparable sales method” using sales prices of comparable properties and “construction cost” method. Since there are probably no buildings in Allegheny County remotely comparable to a casino, and since the casino is newly-built, the best approach is probably the “construction cost” method. The County assessor would have to take the reported construction costs and reduced them to 2002 prices. However, the fact that the original owner went broke trying to build the facility, causing long periods of inactivity, to be eventually finished by a new owner, the final cost was substantially increased without an increase in value. Without getting too deeply into the details, there is plenty of room for disagreement concerning construction costs at administrative hearings and in court — and there will be.

Since table games won’t be started until at least late in 2010, it is not beyond imagining that the County Assessors will raise the assessment for that in 2011. Of course, this and subsequent increased assessments will be appealed and are likely to be reduced, either by decision or settlement agreement. Perhaps the County Assessors anticipated an appeal in all cases and started too high in the hope that the final figure would end up where they thought it belongs.

All this occurs after the County Executive has done everything possible to keep from raising assessments on homeowners — widely viewed as political suicide for an incumbent. Casinos don’t vote and no one protests if their taxes are too high. After all, we authorized them to generate tax revenues, didn’t we?

Such cynicism is not new to tax assessment. At one time (and it may still be so) a certain southern state substantially overassessed the real estate owned by railroads every year. Every year the railroads, with the aid of a statistics professor on permanent retainer, easily knocked the assessments down in court.

Meanwhile, the County and City can collect (or try to collect) the full amount of the taxes that this assessment generates.

CLT

Category: Uncategorized

That Lawyer Guy on 22 Tweets

I recommend the interview with the lawyer-blogger “That Lawyer Guy” on 22 Tweets, which can be accessed via the blogroll. Here is a lawyer who cares passionately about his clients, many of whom are at the end of the road and out of chances.

CLT

Category: Uncategorized

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Welcome

CLIFF TUTTLE has been a Pennsylvania lawyer for over 45 years and (inter alia) is a real estate litigator and legal writer. The posts in this blog are intended to provide general information about legal topics of interest to lawyers and consumers with a Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania focus. However, this information does not constitute legal advice and there is no lawyer-client relationship created when you read this blog. You are encouraged to leave comments but be aware that posted comments can be read by others. If you wish to contact me in privacy, please use the Contact Form located immediately below this message. I will reply promptly and in strict confidence.

Pittsburgh Legal Back Talk

Legal topics of interest to lawyers and consumers with a Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania focus.

1410 Posts and Counting

Categories

iPad iPad iPad iPadâ„¢

Caveat to “Public Radio to the People?”

Linda E. Plowman, Tell Me Something Interesting About Copyright Law.

Public Radio to the People?

Its a New Game.

Deep End May Be Pretty Shallow.

Potpouri

That’s K&L Gates with a “B”.

Swinging For the Fences.

That Lawyer Guy on 22 Tweets

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