From: Jeffrey Sussman, Inc.
Marketing Public Relations
249 East 48 Street FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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For: Offit Kurman

Contact: Jeffrey Sussman
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OFFIT KURMAN ATTORNEY, JONATHAN WACHS, ISSUES LATEST

MONTHLY NEWS ABOUT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Maple Lawn, MD --- Jonathan Wachs, a principal in the mid-Atlantic law firm of Offit Kurman and head of its Intellectual Property Group, has compiled his most recent important IP news from his weekly blog, Friday Factoids. Below are the issues that Mr. Wachs has chosen:
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) recently began authorizing or “delegating” additional generic top-level domains (such as .com and .net) (“GTLDs”) to be registered and used. Over 1,300 new GTLDs are likely to be delegated in the next few years. Between October 2013 and April 2014, ICANN delegated more than 175 new GTLDs. The newly created GTLDs or “delegated strings” include .dating, .email, .careers .and company.
Source: http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/delegated-strings
From 1990 to 2010, the percentage of USPTO-issued patents that name a woman as one of the inventors doubled. In 2010, women received one-third of the trademarks issued by the USPTO to individuals (which is twice the share they received in 1980).
Source: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-01/women-inventors-double-their-share-of-patents
It is reported that the five songs earning the highest amount of royalties are as follows: (1) Hill Sisters’ Happy Birthday (1893) (estimated earnings - $50 million); (2) Irving Berlin’s White Christmas (1940) (estimated earnings - $36 million); (3) Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil and Phil Specter’s You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin (1964) (estimated earnings - $32 million); (4) John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s Yesterday (1965) (estimated earnings - $30 million); and (5) Alex North & Hy Zaret’s Unchained Melody (1955) (estimated earnings - $27.5 million).
Source: http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/entertainment-articles/the-10-richest-songs-of-all-time
On April 3, 2014 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. and other owners of rights in the James Bond franchise filed a copyright infringement claim against NBCUniversal and others. The complaint alleges that the defendants’ motion picture project (in active development) is a mere knockoff production that uses without authorization the characters, plots, theme, setting and other elements of works from the Bond film series.
Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/216364237/Section-8
Music production companies and movie studios recently sued Megaupload and its key operators on claims Megaupload facilitated and promoted access to pirated copyright protected content. Megaupload was one of the largest digital file-sharing websites before U.S. regulators shut down the site in 2012. The suits claim Megaupload caused copyright holders to lose more than $500 million in revenue.
Sources: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-26933488; http://variety.com/2014/music/news/major-record-labels-sue-megaupload-for-massive-copyright-infringement-1201155738/
About Offit Kurman:
Offit Kurman is the fastest-growing, commercial law firm in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It has offices in Baltimore/Washington; Bethesda, Frederick, Maple Lawn, and Owings Mills, Maryland; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Tysons Corner, Virginia; and Wilmington, Delaware. The firm’s website is http://www.offitkurman.com

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