Justice Stevens proves to be the go-to Justice once again when it comes to IP issues on the Supreme Court.
It just released a unanimous decision that he authored, holding that the NFL can be sued for anti-trust violations for trying to give exclusive manufacturing licenses for producing trademarked clothing with NFL logos on them.
(It doesn't rule on whether the lawsuit will be ultimately successful or not, only that the NFL isn't immune from such lawsuits.)
Read the decision here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/31867867/No-08-661-American-Needle-v-NFL
(A harbinger of the forthcoming Bilksi patent decison? We shall see...)
Laws are being made to maintain the peace and order to our community. And as a responsible citizen we are expected to follow the laws.
Supreme Court is the highest tribunal in the land, whatever decision it has made it'll be permanent. However, if you violate the law there are certain punishment for it.
Well,
that was certainly something we didn't already know!
Not.
Actually, I'm pretty sure the Supreme Court's decisions can be reversed by later Supreme Court decisions, as well as overridden by an act of Congress.
Nobody:
Mostly, yes. The Supreme Court can reverse itself, and has. The Supreme Court may be overridden by an act of Congress, but any law passed by Congress in violation of the Constitution can be invalidated by the Supreme Court. The only recourse Congress then has is to either try to pass a different law that fits within the constraints of the Constitution (using the Supreme Court decision as a guide), or get the Constitution amended.
