September 2003 Archives
The New York Times (Michael Luo) is reporting that OCLC is suing a New York library-themed hotel because the hotel is arranged (and stocked with books!) according to the Dewey Decimal System.
Or perhaps I should say, The Dewey Decimal System[TM]. Yes, that's right. OCLC, that nonprofit library cooperative that makes interlibrary loan so easy and makes it possible to locate a book or article just about anywhere, claims a trademark on the Dewey Decimal System.
Dewey apparently copyrighted his system, too, though he invented it in 1874, so the copyright should be long expired (at that point in time, if I recall my changes in copyright law correctly, he wouldn't have been able to get more than 14 to 28 years of copyright protection). A trademark, however, can be repeatedly renewed.
No time for analysis right now, except to say that I'm a little skeptical of this case. In any event, the treble profits damages demand strikes me as a little obnoxious, even though I know plenty well that it's customary to ask for maximum damages allowed by law. Still, this seems to me to be one of those situations where the lawsuit to enforce the trademark could tarnish that very trademark.
As for the hotel owners, well, maybe they should use the LC system next time.
The NYT article is available here -- free registration required, as usual.
In response to my post earlier today, Carolyn Elefant remarked, "I haven't read the NY Times article, but I'd be shocked to find that public interest groups have trouble finding attorneys." After all, she explains, there's a lot of competition for those jobs.
She's right that many people compete for public interest jobs, and they're hard to get. The New York Times article focuses on lawyers who have managed to get into those jobs, only to have to leave for higher-paying work because they can't afford to stay in a public interest field. The problem may not be finding lawyers, but keeping them.
I notice that the kinds of salaries the article seemed to be talking about were substantially less than one can usually get for comparable work around here, so I'm sure there are regional differences, too.
A friend of mine works for a legal aid agency in eastern Minnesota. She has to wait tables so that she can pay the bills. It's unfortunate that she may have to leave her legal aid job, because she had a impressive touch with the clients (and a good success rate, too) when we were both in the clinical program at school, and she worked very hard to get that job upon graduation.
As for myself and what I want to do, well, that's a mystery I'm working to solve. You can bet, though, that every time I think about different sorts of paths I might take, those loan bills elbow their way into my thoughts.
The New York Times is running an article by Jonathan D. Glater today under the headline "High Tuition Debts and Low Pay Drain Public Interest Law."
My law debt is presently the bane of my existence, the golden handcuffs that keep me from doing things I want to do. I went to law school to open doors, to expand my opportunities, but the debt has a tendency to close them.
Not getting enough time with my fiancee, the lack of any sign of any other social life, and the overarching stress at the office that keeps most people there from ever smiling might be more tolerable and less of a tumbling trajectory toward burnout if I found the work itself intrinsically inspiring or motivating. However, that's not happening. This is definitely trouble. But this all in turn raises the question how one figures out what one really wants to do and finds a way there in a lousy economy with $60,000 worth of educational debt.
