“Hold on, let me google it”
How many times have we all said, let’s google it! Do you think the phrase “google” is synonymous with “search” on the internet? If so, you are on the side of the guy who is suing Google over their trademark. In this case, the plaintiff was sued by google for registering websites like “googlegaycruises”. The plaintiff then sued Google alleging that the trademark “google” has lost its distinctiveness and now has become descriptive. Words like “zipper” once were trademarked but a trademark can be lost when a word is now considered a descriptive term.
I think the term “google” has become a descriptive term. Rarely do I ever say, “let me search that out on the internet”. I usually just say, let me google it….thus, making it descriptive for trademark purposes. I think it will be a minute before the trademark is actually lost but I do think there is some merit to the idea that “google” has become a bit generic. Don’t you agree?
Leave a comment | tags: lawsuit, Not so legal, trademark, Stephanie Cohen, Google, lost | posted in Legal topics, Not so legal
I have been following Aimee Copeland’s story. The 24 year old cut her leg when a home made zip line broke and she was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh eating bacteria. I know there are so many cases of injuries, hardship and turmoil that come across the news each day and there is no one story more important than the other per se. In this instance though, there was something about this story that caught my eye. Perhaps it was her father’s insistence that his daughter was going to be ok. I am really close with my dad so I can understand that kind of bond. Even now, with the latest news that Aimee has spoken her first words, I still follow this story with hope each day. I think Aimee’s persistence and determination is something that everyone can learn from and it makes you realize how precious each day is. It is important to value every moment, no matter how big or how small. I am so happy for Aimee and her family that she has been making such progress. I remember her father saying that it is important for Aimee to value life more than her physical appearance. What a good message for us all to remember. Happy Memorial Day to all, more legal news this week!
Leave a comment | tags: aimee copeland, hope, inspir, inspiration
Hello Not So Legal’ers! I did a video post about this but had to follow up….growing up in Dallas, I went to Walmart. Why did I go to Walmart you might ask? I don’t really recall but I vaguely remember the florescent lights and the many sections of weird shoes that no one wants to buy.
Aside from the florescent lights, apparently Walmart likes to discriminate against women (allegedly). Five women brought a lawsuit against Walmart and thousands more joined in as they all allege sexual discrimination. One supervisor told one of the plaintiff’s that she should get “dolled up” when she went to ask for a raise. Walmart is standing by their claim that they give equal opportunities to everyone and always help women advance in their careers. The joy of this case is that the reason why it may actually even go anywhere is because SO many women came forward to join the class so the lawsuit could be filed.
The Supreme Court is going to hear the case to decide whether these group of women will classify as a “class” for the purpose of filing a class action lawsuit. Walmart claims they are missing the “commonality” element, which means that the group of women suing do not have enough in common to be considered a class for the purposes of the filing. I am fairly certain they all probably have some story that would be around the idea that someone told them to get “dolled up” for an interview.
Cases like these can really create a difference in the workplace and differences for the better. I had a supervisor once ask me if I thought the real reason men met took meetings with me was because they wanted to date me. Another one once asked why I didn’t wear more skirts. Random sexual questions don’t just happen at Walmart, it happens everywhere. I am glad these women had the courage to speak up! For all the men out there, would love to hear of when women have been treating you inappropriately at the workplace. Curious to see how many stories we can hear about that!
Always remember to honor your power and stay tuned for the next posting 
.
Leave a comment | tags: politics, sexual discrimination, Stephanie Cohen, walmart, women | posted in discrimination, employment, lawsuit, Legal Questions, Legal topics, Not so legal
This isn’t really so much of a legal situation as it is just a general evaluation of a parenting technique. ReShonda Tate Billingsley punished her child when she found a picture on Facebook of her kid holding a picture of vodka — while saying she wished she could drink it. ReShonda drew a sign that said “Since I want to post photos of me holding liquor I am obviously not ready for social media and will be taking a hiatus until I learn what I should + should not post. BYE-BYE.” and had her child hold the sign while she took a picture of it. Do you think that is too tough of a punishment?
I think the bigger issue is why her teenage daughter wants to drink vodka, not so much that she posted the picture to Facebook. I am hoping that the mom is addressing that piece of things but I think the punishment is a good idea. ReShonda made a comment that if she had just grounded her, 20 minutes later she would have forgotten the punishment and that this punishment was fitting the behavior. I completely agree as it is important I think for anyone to understand the consequences of social media. Interesting technique but I do think it will work. Thoughts, anyone?
Leave a comment | tags: Facebook, punishment, ReShonda, social media, Stephanie Cohen | posted in Education, life, Not so legal, Opinion
I love music. Mainly hip hop but I do love music. I think it is so interesting that most people think music should be free. This concept has brought the music business to its knees while people just spend time downloading songs without paying for them.
Bring in the case of a Boston student fined over 675k for illegally downloading and sharing 31 songs. The Supreme Court denied even listening to the case and the case has been returned to the lower court on the issue of penalties. What do you think about this case? Do you think it is fair for a guy to have to pay that much for 31 songs when there are probably far more egregious downloaders out there? It is clear this case was meant to send a message. Do you think it is too harsh of a message? And, what kind of music do you like? Write in and let me know!
Leave a comment | tags: hip hop, lawsuit, Music, music business, music free, Stephanie Cohen, supreme court | posted in lawsuit, Legal Questions, Legal topics, life, Not so legal
Wooooow. Usually I don’t throw out the “wow” with the extra o’s but even I am surprised about this one. I have a video I am going to post about John Travolta and things are moving so fast with this situation that it is hard to keep up. As most of you may know, John Travolta was sued by two different men alleging that Mr. Travolta, well, was inappropriate during his massage(s). Long story short, the attorney representing both plaintiffs told one of them to get a new attorney. One went with Gloria Allred and then eventually the other followed suit but both claims have been dropped. The claims were dismissed with prejudice so they are not barred from bringing a claim if they want to but NOW, guess who else is getting sued! Gloria Allred. The initial attorney is claiming Ms. Allred stole his clients.
Talk about crazy. It is pretty easy to figure out that if one plaintiff went to Gloria Allred that the other would follow suit (no pun intended). The ego of the other attorney is kind of comical. Maybe he needs a good massage.
Leave a comment | tags: gloria allred, john travolta, lawsuit, Stephanie Cohen | posted in Legal topics, Not so legal, Opinion, Stephanie Cohen
I figured why not talk about some kind of airline lawsuit. I really love how they have wi-fi on the planes. It makes me feel like I am doing some I am not supposed to do for some reason. For years and years I feel like all we hear is turn off our phones and computers so things work properly. I know from flying on a private plane that you can always keep things on — and I feel like most people do whatever they want anyway. In any event, I like being so high up but still being able to be connected. On a computer at least.
Anyway…let’s talk about Southwest Airlines (not the airline I am on right now). A woman is suing Southwest for essentially their claim that she is too fat. She doesn’t want monetary damages, she just wants to have Southwest modify their policies.
This particular woman had been told before she was too overweight and needed a second seat….then lost 100 pounds and was essentially humiliated in front of a bunch of other customers while being told she should buy a separate seat, again.
How can we police this issue? I don’t think someone should have to stuff themselves into an airline seat taking the arm rest of the person next to them. However, I don’t think you need to be called out in the middle of the airport for needing to buy an extra seat. This is a case where some good actually may come of it. These types of issues do need policies and applaud her for not wanting monetary damages as I think she will get farther in this case with that plan. It isn’t Southwest Airlines fault if someone is overweight and needs to buy two seats. It is, however, their fault if there policy causes humiliation to their passengers because they don’t have a proper way to handle it. I like this lawsuit.
Leave a comment | tags: fat, lawsuit, no so legal, southwest airlines, Stephanie Cohen, two seats | posted in lawsuit, Legal Questions, Legal topics, Stephanie Cohen
I don’t do boats. I mean I like the idea of sailing the high seas but it is one of those things in life that can remain a mystery to me as far as I am concerned. I read about the most horrible story today about a fisherman stranded at sea for 18 days that sued Princess Cruise Lines because essentially they just passed him by. The fisherman and his two friends were stranded at sea and three passengers on the cruise line happened to see the stranded men waving their arms. They told Princess employees but apparently they didn’t do anything. Two of the friends died and luckily the one fisherman was finally discovered by the Equadorian navy.
Princess Cruise is being sued for negligence as clearly they neglected their duty of care by just passing up three stranded men on a boat. The captain says he was never notified and there is a lot of speculation as to the communication process on the ship that would have allowed this to happen. I think it is just a sad tale and we know this will go the settlement route but I hope Princess has to pay up.
Leave a comment | tags: attorneys, lawsuit, legal, legal host, legal question, Legal Questions, Not so legal, princess cruise lines, ships, Stephanie Cohen, stranded, vacation | posted in lawsuit, Legal topics, Stephanie Cohen
A reporter was fired from her news reporting job because her employer found out she was a stripper on the side. How did her employer find out that Sarah Tressler, the stripper, was in fact a stripper? I guess everyone has a blog these days as Sara had a blog where she disclosed that she was a high society reporter by day and stripper by night. I am going to check out her blog by the way.
Anyway, her employer contends she didn’t disclose she was a stripper in her employment application so that is why she was fired. Her attorney, Gloria Allred, maintains that strippers are mainly female so if she was fired because of being a stripper, that would have an adverse effect on women and woman are a protected class when it comes to sexual discrimination, therefore she was discriminated against when she was fired. Not sure I think it is a strong enough argument nor am I following the argument. What is the adverse effect on women? The next argument Allred makes is that Sara was an independent contractor, not an employee of the the strip club so technically one could argue she had no obligation to list the job on her employment application. Don’t follow that one either as when someone asks your job history, usually people put any kind of job — employee or independent contractor. I would say that stripping kind of fits into that category of things that are probably not the most optimal for a job description and I am pretty sure that is the reason that is why she left it out. Soooo, what do we think? What if her side job was at Starbucks and she didn’t disclose it — do you think she would have been fired for that too?
I don’t condone stripping. I think there are other ways to make money. However, I am not sure I agree that she should be fired. An employer has a right to decide who they want working for them and what kind of behavior is acceptable but what someone does on their own time should be up to them so long as it doesn’t interfere with their job. The high society thing and disclosing it on a blog was probably not the brightest idea. Too bad she isn’t reporting on sports or maybe on the automotive section of the newspaper. Probably would not have been as many issues there.
1 comment | tags: employment, fired, sara tessler, sexual discrimination, Stephanie Cohen, stripper | posted in discrimination, employment, Legal Questions, Legal topics, life, Not so legal
I loooove LMFAO. Who doesn’t like singing I’m sexy and I know it (except for when it gets stuck in your head which then cursing LMFAO seems like a good idea)? A six year old kid was suspended from school for singing that song to a female in his class because the school considered it sexual harassment. If that is sexual harassment then someone better talk to the guy who came in my office the other day and said my office smelled nice.
Talk about taking something over the top. A. He is six. B. In order to sexually harass someone, there needs to be unwanted sexual advances that create a hostile work environment. I am sure the school’s policy may have indicated additional language but still, singing a song is a sexual advance? Just because it has the word “sexy” in it doesn’t make it a sexual advance. C. Did I mention he was six? Which means the female student he was “singing” to was also six or at least around that age, which means the likelihood of even understanding a sexual advance is highly unlikely.
The boy went back to school but now the family is fighting to clear his record. LMFAO lovers unite! If we need to sign a petition, send it my way!
Leave a comment | tags: entertainment, hostile work environment, sexual advance, unwanted sexual advances | posted in Family, Legal topics, Music, Not so legal, Stephanie Cohen
Let's make the law entertaining, shall we? 
