Professor Townsend-Gard's Blog

The Tulane Center for Intellectual Property Law and Cutlure has a new website! Thanks to Benjamin Varadi, an IP Fellow extraordinaire. The new website can be found at http://iplc.tulane.edu. It's still a work in progress, but we have information on the Who Dat controversy, CultureFest (organized by the new IPLC but sponsored by a number of our student organizations) and the Durationator(tm) software project. I should be blogging regularly there as well on IP issues.

I asked Tania to write a post about her thoughts on the Who Dat Controversy: " Whatever the answer to the legal question of who owns “Who Dat,” the clear cultural answer is that the people of this city own it. It represents New Orleans in all of its glory — undaunted and ungrammatical, our language a meld of port city immigrants and African heritage. We ask “Who Dat Gonna Beat Dem Saints” as a demand, an assertion, but also sometimes as a real question. We are used to losing, to having our hopes dashed. From the end of the cotton boom to the passing of the oil rush, we have never again found our economic feet. We are not very good at capitalism, not very good at striving to be the biggest or richest American city. Yet we know who we are. Who Dat? We define ourselves by the fact that we value our culture so intensely, because we spend inordinate amounts of time wearing costumes to march in parades and cooking mysterious brews because our ancestors did. Who Dat expresses all of those things in shorthand. It symbolizes our unity, despite the absurd forces of race and class that drive us apart. Right now it expresses the transformative power of sport to make us hug strangers, to see each other as brothers and sisters. Even if we don’t look alike, we talk alike. We speak our own language. And no trademark symbol can ever change that or claim ownership of it."

The Who Dat controversy has been all ablaze this week.  Professor Gabe Feldman (sports law) commented on it on Good Morning America.   Professor Glynn Lunney (trademarks) was on ESPN.  Some of the students in my property class are going to research a few elements to provide greater understand (as trademark is part of property--intellectual property).

So, we will see what happens next!  Interesting times.

I'm speaking at Arizona on the Proposed Google Book Settlement later this month. Here is the advertisement: http://www.law.arizona.edu/emailapp/googlebookspanel2009.cfm

I gave a faculty presentation on Friday on my current research in Copyright Law. So many people came to listen and offer suggestions. The faculty here is like no other--fun, smart, kind, and so incredibly supportive. I feel very lucky to be part of this institution. Then, on Saturday, one of my IP Fellows (a recently graduated student) and a 3L student came to my house for our weekly working session on the software we are developing. Again, I felt the same way as I did on Friday-- The Students here are like no other--fun, smart, kind, and so incredibly willing to play. We had a great session and may have solved one of our last big research questions needed in completing Phase One of the Durationator (tm). So we are very excited.

Perfect.

This weekend was Halloween, and I had the pleasure of not only spending the holiday--which is amazing here in New Orleans--with my family, but also with a 1L student and his family (girlfriend and brother in from out of town). Halloween here is AMAZING, and our experiences this year did not disappoint. First, we, of course, decorated the house with lots of lights, carved pumpkins and scary things. And of course, there were many pre-Halloween activities here--for all ages. Then, the night began with the neighbors out--not just in our area, but everywhere it seemed--from the little ones to the college kids. It is as if all of New Orleans opens its doors and welcomes everyone to play. We played in two venues, with our 1L group going on to the French Quarter. First, trick-or-treating on our block, which turned out to have its own impromptu party of all ages, but dominated by the very small. Even our daughter seemed to tower over many of the princesses and various cute things that kept arriving. But it wasn't just the candy and the move from house-to-house. People--some one knew and others one just had met--stopped and talked, as the children ran around, playing and making new friends. That was the first part of the evening. The second was our stop at Octavia--one of many streets in New Orleans that has a great time with Halloween. Each house has candy, of course, but for the children and often yummy drinks or food for the adults as well. (One house ran out of candy, but not wine.) The houses are all decorated, and many have parties going on in each. Professor Tetlow, from the first year we got her, had introduced us to her friends at one house, and so each year this has become a stop for us. There is something quite special about being welcomed into someone's home to stop and chat, eat and drink for a while, before moving on. Then, the 1L crowd--who had joined us to this point--meeting new friends too and connecting with people they already knew--parted. They went to the French Quarter, where they reported that everyone they saw had a costume on (we all had costumes throughout the evening, of course--ours being a Vampire Family, and they being a Knight/Princess and Sailor). They also reported having a wonderful time. We went on to a party ourselves, or so we thought. The directions to the party were, "House on the Corner, with lots of orange lights and big spiders." It turns out that at least five houses had that description--it's New Orleans at Halloween! Lots of Orange light and big spiders were NOT an identifying feature. We thought that was really funny, and so we were ready to call it a night. So, once again Halloween comes to New Orleans. It's like nothing I've ever experienced, and is one more element that makes this place really wonderful and special.