Golf Rules to Change for the Better, After 276 Years

Posted by joseph bahgat on October 28, 2011

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And I thought it took too long for Congress to fix bad laws...

What began as 13 rules authored by a Scottish golf club in 1744 are now 34 regulations and procedures. The 155-page book resembles a car manual, and probably gets as much use.

The NY Times is reporting that the powers that be have decided to amend a couple of golf's more silly, illogical rules:

1) A golfer will no longer be penalized if a gust of wind moves their ball after they have taken their stance and their club is near the ball;

2) There is no penalty for inadvertently "smoothing the sand" before playing a bunker shot (so long as the player doesn't gain an advantage).

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy playing golf as much as the next guy (attorney?), but I've always scoffed at some of the seemingly asinine rules, in fact, I'd been playing for a couple years before someone politely told me about no. 2 (above). The thing that makes even less sense, though, is that in a game where the most fundamental rule is play the ball as it lies, why is it customary to pick up your ball when it's on the green, place a marker, mess with the turf underneath, and then replace your ball randomly near the spot where you put the marker?

Last Day to Opt-out of .xxx Domain

Posted by joseph bahgat on October 27, 2011

Ron Jeremy as Super Mario.jpg

Have you worked hard to develop and maintain a brand name or online presence for your business? Would you care if somebody used that brand to promote porn?

Tomorrow is the last day you can opt-out from having your business's name or mark being registered as a .xxx domain name — .xxx is the forthcoming top-level domain dedicated to the global adult entertainment industry.

For example, if you are the proud owner of the Hair Club for Men company, which has its website at www.hairclub.com, and you fail to opt-out of the .xxx domain, you leave the door open to someone else registering the name www.hairclub.xxx. Imagine the fun that they could have with that domain name! It costs only $300 to opt-out, and recovering your name after it's already registered could cost thousands (or worse, it may be unrecoverable).

For more information on opting out, refer to ICM Registry, the company responsible for bringing us the .xxx domain.

Tweet this...

Posted by joseph bahgat on October 19, 2011

Twitter SF corp ofc.jpg

Who knew that the word tweet wasn't even owned by Twitter? Apparently, since 2008, a little-known advertising agency named Twittad has owned the exclusive rights to what has become a household phrase.

Twitter has finally laid its hands on trademark rights to the word “tweet,” but the case provides yet another lesson in why companies have to nail down intellectual property rights early on.

This is a valuable lesson to be learned from what may at first seem funny or trivial. Although some might liken Twittad's registration of tweet to a variation of cybersquatting, the relevant standard here is bona fide use in commerce, which Twittad was able to demonstrate.

University Paid Nearly $142K in Football Players' Legal Fees

Posted by joseph bahgat on October 14, 2011

Terrelle Pryor in the pocket_v Iowa_2009.jpg

Who do you think foots the bill when a university hires attorneys to defend its student–athletes?

Ohio State University's student newspaper—The Lantern—ran a story earlier this week about the outrageous legal fees the school has paid thus far in defending various football players against alleged NCAA rules infractions.

The "Sports Illustrated 9" refers to nine current players, separate from the six players suspended for "Tattoo-gate," "whose alleged wrongdoing might fall within the NCAA's four-year statute of limitations," according to a June 6 SI article.

OSU's athletics department paid the fees out of its general operations fund, which student fees do not go toward, said Dan Wallenberg, associate athletics director for communications.

[Wallenberg] also said the funds for similar services could come out of the Student-Athlete Opportunity Fund, which was created by the NCAA in 2003 to provide direct benefits to student–athletes or their families, and is generated by NCAA basketball tournament revenue.

The benefactor of this particular transaction is the Columbus law firm of Crabbe Brown & James LLP, which has reportedly received "$141,814.30 as of mid-September." That number is quite small compared with, for example, the amount Ohio State paid the Vorys law firm from 2004–2008 to defend them against former basketball coach Jim O'Brien's wrongful termination lawsuit (well over a million bucks).

By comparison, Auburn University paid $170K in legal fees while the NCAA investigated 2010 Heisman trophy winner Cam Newton's eligibility. And the University of Michigan paid over $600,000 in legal fees in an NCAA infractions case involving former head football coach Rich Rodriguez.

As Alex Antonetz's Lantern article points out, this is all legit—schools can pay outside counsel to represent their student–athletes when they get themselves into trouble. Perhaps its unfortunate that the schools can't help them out when they can't pay their phone bills, can't buy groceries, or can't afford to fly home for holidays, because if the student–athletes had some financial assistance in that regard they might not have to resort to earning money other ways (ways that get them into trouble). Having lived with two scholarship athletes (one All-American) during my freshman year of college, I have first-hand knowledge about student–athletes' financial woes.