People who aren’t intellectual property lawyers often mix up trademark, copyright, patent and trade secret protection. Each provides a different kind of protection for a different kind of property interest, and they generally don’t overlap. There are also different protections awarded under federal and state (and sometimes foreign) law for different forms of intellectual property, … Continue Reading
A guy walks into a bar, orders some drinks, gets the bill and pays it, leaves and sues. A federal district court has no choice but not to dismiss his claim on the pleadings, but he is unlikely to prevail in the end, because he had no reasonable expectation he was going to negotiate a reasonable price with the bar, but rather that the bar was going to charge him its stated price.… Continue Reading
The Oregon Public Health Division’s (OPHD) Foodborne Illness Prevention Program announced that it is moving forward with the adoption of the 2009 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Food Code. The new rules will take effect on September 4, 2012. Oddly, however, the agency noted that it would not be adopting the “No Bare Hand Contact” section … Continue Reading
It is probably an article of faith out there among the lay populace that if you discover that the object causing your previously unexplained cough of two years’ duration is a two-inch long fragment of a plastic eating utensil that has somehow entered your lung, and if you find the logo of a well-known restaurant … Continue Reading
One of the few pleasures of my current road trip is the chance to eat at Burgerville, a fast food chain based in Vancouver, WA, but with more stores in Oregon and none north of Centralia. Their motto is Fresh►Local►Sustainable; we’re proud to have them as a client. Their attitude toward food may be a little … Continue Reading
You’ve heard the phrase "buried in the bill," of course. Section 4205 of the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," the health care reform bill President Obama signed on March 23, 2010, is contained on pages 1206-1214 of a 2407 page bill. It could hardly be more buried than that. In very technical terms, Section … Continue Reading
A recent headline in the Huffington Post breathlessly importuned: "Restaurant Food Has Up to 200% More Calories Than Advertised." If you only read the headline, you might think this was some important information that might change your eating habits. If you read the article, you would discover a balanced set of conclusions from a fairly limited study. … Continue Reading
Joel Putnam is a world traveller in his early 20’s. He recently reached Africa, his seventh continent in his travels around the world. As is typical of his generation (he is, in the interests of full disclosure, a friend of my son), he is blogging about it. His blog is very well-written, and the captions … Continue Reading
Christmas pudding is an English delicacy with a long tradition. One of those traditions is that small coins or little silver charms are baked into the pudding, which are supposed to be sources of good luck for the coming year. Small coins and little silver charms, of course, can be swallowed or can crack teeth. … Continue Reading
The Fat Duck, Heston Blumenthal’s three-Michelin star restaurant which was once named the best restaurant in the world (it is currently second), was closed temporarily because of reports of food poisoning. Nothing has been found in a thorough search, leading to speculation that there may have been some form of sabotage, or simply a non-specific … Continue Reading
By Guest Blogger Richard Goldfarb Sunday, at a local restaurant, I saw a sign saying that there would be no fresh sliced tomatoes on my burger. Although it is quite clear that there are safe tomatoes available, the FDA has encouraged restaurants simply to cease selling them. This makes a lot of sense: rumors fly … Continue Reading
