Disqus - Latest Comments for Ron_Coleman

Re: JANE COLEMAN: How A Weak Penn Law Dean Weaponized Student Hurt Feelings Against Dissident Prof. Amy…

Ron Coleman — Wed, 24 Aug 2022 09:37:45 -0000

Jane Coleman is the best writer in our house!

Re: THANKS, MITTENS: …

Ron Coleman — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 02:05:56 -0000

Is he awful or what?

Re: New York Judge Reinterprets an Old Law to Force a Building Demolition.

Ron Coleman — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 18:18:29 -0000

Quote:

Complaining that the proposed buildings are “huge towers,” Justice Engoron declared: “I’ve lived in the city my whole life. You can’t just do this because the zoning allows it"

Judges do this all the time, and appellate courts put their rubber-stamp on it. We just happen to notice it when the obvious waste and lack of regard for other people's property and effort is so conspicuous.

Re: RON COLEMAN SHOOTS DOWN the Democrats’ Mueller pre-spin. …

Ron Coleman — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 08:02:24 -0000

Unfortunately shooting doesn't stop zombies.

Re: IF YOU KNOW ANYTHING (SPECIFIC, NOT JUST “SOROS!”), HELP RON COLEMAN OUT: “I’m interested in articl…

Ron Coleman — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 22:00:15 -0000

Someone got it right!

Re: Section 2(a), a Happy-Talk Clause, Really?

Ron Coleman — Mon, 19 Jun 2017 16:10:07 -0000

Steve,

You are the father of a creative and, until Simon Tam came along, what looked like an historical legal approach to Section 2(a) and "the Redskins problem." Many people of good will, motivated by feelings of decency, civility and civic pride (those last two are not synonyms), were understandably supportive of the sentiments it reflected and the result being sought.

Simon Tam's situation complicated things. He was not the Redskins. He is not sympathetic to them today. When I filed our first two rounds of appeal from the PTO's refusal to register, I was certain that at one level or another, a reviewing tribunal would recognize and acknowledge the repeated and manifest departures by the PTO from its own examining standards and would remind examiners that while Section 2(a) was unassailable, it was not a license to ignore the rights of applicants or to disregard the burden on the government to justify a denial under 2(a).

It was the inexorable, largely bureaucratic logic of 2(a)'s disparagement clause that killed it. The PTO could not and would not give in on THE SLANTS even when we raised the procedural issues in responses to the office actions and to the TTAB, because its rigid application had taken on ideological proportions -- mainly due to fear about certain "unmentionable" trademarks that would have to be let in the door if THE SLANTS were.

That fear was quite rational. But it was also reasonable to assume that in a time when no expression of dissent, no mockery of traditional mores and no expression of political "resistance," regardless of severity, is barred from public discourse, the idea of carving out the trademark registration system as a place of heightened decency and propriety was doomed. Again, though, if that idea ever made any sense, its fate was sealed by the way the PTO - believing it was doing its duty - handled the Tam application. And, obviously, if it hadn't been Simon Tam who pushed the issue, it would have been the next guy.

You're right to mourn what seems like the loss of a certain elevated tone from what we think of as the trademark practice. Based on my years talking about these issues with our colleagues in the trademark bar, you are far from alone in your mourning. I believe, in fact, that while most trademark lawyers are big fans of the First Amendment, they did not want this outcome. It did nothing for the vast majority of their clients, it does not grow their practices and it's icky.

The Supreme Court held today that ickiness or squeamishness, whether experienced by trademark lawyers or by strangers to the registration equation who would not know what was in the Principal Register in a million years but for notorious cases like this, are not grounds to make distinctions among those who apply to register valid trademarks.

The only thing we can do now is encourage -- by example, by our good offices and by our influence on our institutions -- a return to civility, good taste and sensitivity in our discourse. Will that make the Redskins change their team name? Maybe, some day, it will. If it doesn't, those who object to it will have many other ways of showing their displeasure. You have fought a good and admirable fight, Steve, and I have been proud to call you a colleague and friend for as long as we have known each other.

Re: The Bald-Faced Lie in Foxwordy’s Marketing

Ron Coleman — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 20:21:57 -0000

I founded Princeton Lawyers, an email group for members of the Princeton University community involved in the legal profession and hosted on the university's Tigernet network (accessible to students, staff and alumni)... in 1997 (if it wasn't 1996).

Re: Tastes Like Chicken, Not a Copyright

Ron Coleman — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 13:37:43 -0000

I was going to blog about this decision too (naturally, since I get all my ideas from Duets Blog). But the underlying complaint is, as described, so frivolous I wonder how much precedential value its dismissal will have.

Re: Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Newspaper Edits Female World Leaders Out of Charlie Hebdo March

Ron Coleman — Mon, 12 Jan 2015 22:36:15 -0000

You don't see a difference between editing a photo and mass murder?

Re: The Fatal Conceit of Jonathan Gruber

Ron Coleman — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 14:54:48 -0000

Paul, you write:

‘Those are the economists; they are the most dangerous of all.”

I would expand this joke to include all technocrats who think they can develop models of complex economic systems. They have given us the MIT-Club of Rome’s 1972 prediction that the world will run out of resources by 2010, the OMB’s July 2000 forecast of trillion dollar surpluses as far as the eye can see, and Al Gore’s 2006 An Inconvenient Truth, which sent school children to bed with nightmares of drowning in tidal waves.

In the comments, Bob Parkman defends modeling. I write, as a graying "econ major," to defend economists -- for, as your terminology suggests, "technocrats" and "economists" are not the same thing. Soviet "economic" planning bore about as much in common with economic analysis as understood in the West as Lysenko's genetics did with biology. Similarly, the MIT-Club of Rome predictions had little to do with economics, as Julian Simon readily demonstrated. No one employed as an economist, as opposed to a political cheerleader with economics credentials, has ever, I'm pretty sure, that the federal government's post-2000 fiscal policies could remotely square with anything like a surplus. And Al Gore's science may have been dismal, but it certainly wasn't economics either.

As Bob notes, modeling -- micro, macro and techno -- is not inherently good, bad or indifferent. It's just the old problem of garbage in, garbage out. And, to support your thesis, the more that's asked of a model, whether it's Soviet pig iron tonnage or the top-down, fiat reconfiguration of the massive health scare sector, the more garbage that will necessarily be going in.

Too bad Gruber and company decided American healthcare and the patients who depend on it (i.e., Americans) were worthy of a garbage-driven modeling "experiment" worthy, as you say, of the Soviet Union.

Re: George Takei: “The eyes of the world and history are upon you, Judge Sutton”

Ron Coleman — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 23:52:37 -0000

Right. Because the constitutionality of laws is based on the majority of trial and intermediate appellate court judges. Plus feelings.

Re: My Final Statement

Ron Coleman — Sun, 03 Aug 2014 16:36:49 -0000

Goodbye, Andrew. You were a friend indeed in the heady days of blogging, offering me a spot right here when I had a falling out with Dean's World. It was an insignificant moment in the blogosphere, but not in my online career. I never forgot it.

Thank you, Andrew, and God bless you.

Re: Terrorist Hamas Urges Human Sacrifice, New Campaign Reveals

Ron Coleman — Thu, 31 Jul 2014 16:12:07 -0000

Boy, those children really look motivated and excited to act as their father's shields.

Any parent should find this picture extremely upsetting.

Re: Landmark TTAB Decision Invalidates REDSKINS Trademark Registrations

Ron Coleman — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 16:13:19 -0000

Thanks for the link!

Re: Mozilla's CEO sacking will have a chilling effect on political discourse - The Week

Ron Coleman — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 14:15:33 -0000

Did this guy think he was going to be able to publicly donate to causes that discriminate against gays and then expect anyone to believe he'd be a fair boss to gay employees?

Of course he did. Just because your personal beliefs evidently cloud your ability to be fair to people you disagree with that doesn't mean that's true for everyone. It's not. Most of us, in fact, are fair to people we disagree with on any number of issues, every day. .

Re: Stop-and-frisk judge makes new bid to end legal fight

Ron Coleman — Mon, 11 Nov 2013 19:03:39 -0000

There is nothing normal about this application.

Sorry you don't follow my point.

Re: Stop-and-frisk judge makes new bid to end legal fight

Ron Coleman — Sun, 10 Nov 2013 17:00:43 -0000

"The District Judge concurs...". Interesting rhetorical device suggests an offset to the Second Circuit panel, voting and concurring in its own sua sponte "appeal" here.

Not sure the real appellate panel will appreciate the device, however. At all.

Re: How to Behave at a Shabbos Meal With Formerly Orthodox Jews

Ron Coleman — Tue, 29 Oct 2013 12:33:33 -0000

It is true that psychiatrists should not "evaluate," much less diagnose, patients without first-hand examination. But he is no less entitled to generalization about what motivates people than the rest of us. Kkaplan's "diagnosis," that Rabbi Twersky is "full of himself," isn't any more defensible; it's merely an ad hominem at best.

I am sure Rabbi Twersky could defend himself on this point, and has done so, but your general point is well taken, though not the extent of its generality. By which I mean, I don't think there's any empirical basis before us on which to assert that people who have been observant, and are not any more, constitute "a group of people who've typically gone through a great deal of introspection and pain." Maybe you know all 1% of the people who have done so, so you think they're typical. Maybe 94% have done so; I don't know.

We would agree, however, that it's not 100% -- either in your direction or Rabbi Twersky's.

Re: How to Behave at a Shabbos Meal With Formerly Orthodox Jews

Ron Coleman — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 17:26:04 -0000

And you know this about Rabbi Twersky how?

Re: How to Behave at a Shabbos Meal With Formerly Orthodox Jews

Ron Coleman — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 17:25:31 -0000

Tuvia, do you accept Rav Twersky's premise about why people leave, or is it the case that even if it were true you would accuse him of the same motivation?

Re: How to Behave at a Shabbos Meal With Formerly Orthodox Jews

Ron Coleman — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 17:04:24 -0000

You can say it but the case posited here was about ex-frum guys who start arguments about the frum way of life, not the other way.

Re: You Feel Lucky, Punk? Then Invest in Twitter IPO

Ron Coleman — Sun, 15 Sep 2013 14:53:27 -0000

The reason firms like this go through investment banks in fact is to make sure management gets its guaranteed cream up front -- as long as they share it with Goldman.

Re: You Feel Lucky, Punk? Then Invest in Twitter IPO

Ron Coleman — Sun, 15 Sep 2013 14:50:28 -0000

Right now that seems like their best bet.

Re: The World's Tallest Building Is a Stupid Contest

Ron Coleman — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 19:40:09 -0000

You obviously have a great social life, from what can be seen of your ability to interact with others when discussing ideas. No wonder you only comment anonymously -- if people knew who you were, they'd all want to be your friend!

Re: The World's Tallest Building Is a Stupid Contest

Ron Coleman — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 15:52:35 -0000

No, but it seemed to me to be something of an afterthought.