by Mike Oliver | May 8, 2018 | Client Spotlight, Copyrights, Intellectual Property
Hard Work and Hustle Pay Off: Congratulations to our client, Mario Armstrong’s Never Settle Show for taking home an Emmy Award for “Interactivity” at New York’s 61st Annual Emmy Awards on April 14, 2018. The Emmy Awards Show celebrates talented television creators and media professionals in the industry. See Mario’s Emmy Award acceptance speech on behalf of the Show here. In addition to the Show’s award win, Mario Armstrong was also nominated for an Emmy Award for his role as Program Host.
Recently celebrating its one-year anniversary, the Never Settle Show has been an industry game-changer in television broadcasting. By blending traditional TV production and innovative technology, the Show engages with a real-time audience from all over the world for participation in the Show by live video streaming and connecting with social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Periscope, Instagram, and YouTube Live. The real-time audience communicates and interacts with guests through the Show’s social media.
In 2010, Mario Armstrong won an Emmy Award for Best TV Show Host and he was honored with another nomination in 2015 and again in 2018. The Show recently finished its second season and is looking forward to announcing its third season.
Produced by Al Roker Entertainment and Never Settle Productions, the Never Settle Show airs each Wednesday at 7 P.M. ET/4 P.M. PT in New York City in front of a live studio audience. Viewers can watch and interact with the show through Entrepreneur Media’s Facebook page on: https://www.facebook.com/EntMagazine and The Never Settle Show, https://www.facebook.com/NeverSettleShow/.
The entire team at Oliver & Grimsley, LLC wishes Mario and the Never Settle team continued success – Congrats on all your hard work! You did it!
by Mike Oliver | May 3, 2018 | Firm Matters, Office, Office News
Our team at Oliver & Grimsley, LLC recently celebrated our 5 year anniversary at Basignani Winery in Sparks, Maryland.
The owners, Bert and Lynne Basignani, opened the winery in 1986. Having grown now to three vineyards, Basignani Winery features a variety of dry red and white wines as well as deliciously sweet wines. 
We enjoyed our anniversary celebration in the winery’s outdoor pavilion and patio area while enjoying a lovely view of the vineyards. The winery host events throughout the year such as Pizza Class, Friday Night Cafe (featuring live music), and Movie Night, and is open Wednesdays to Sundays for wine tastings, from 11:30am to 5:30pm.
A special thank you to Bert and Lynne Basignani for allowing us to host our special event at the winery and for letting us enjoy Basignani Maryland wine!
by Mike Oliver | May 1, 2018 | Firm Matters
5 years ago today Kim and I started this firm. It is a cliche to say “it seems like just yesterday” – but time spent being as busy as we have been has a funny way of making the cliche a reality, and so it has become a truism!
I thought about listing our accomplishments here . . . but a 5th year anniversary is a time for less marketing and more introspection.
In that vein – I sometimes think whether, knowing what I know and have learned over the last 5 years, I would ever tell someone to try and do what we have done. When I was younger (14) I had to meet with an attorney – and my mother told him I wanted to be a lawyer (this was not true, in fact I wanted to be in a profession that had a code of ethics, but I digress…) and he was very negative and advised me not to do it, and said I would be miserable. Now, I think he was miserable because he just did not like his job and probably that was because he was dealing with clients in distress all day long (divorce). The lesson I learned that day however was never to try and dissuade someone from a path just because I personally would think it ill advised or to be a poor choice for me. Always look from the perspective of the person you are working with or advising – what do they want? what are their goals? So, I would never tell anyone not to start their own firm – but I would say that when you reflect on why you choose a path, the reason has to be a genuine one or you probably will fail, or be miserable, or both.
In my mind Kim and I started the firm primarily for two reasons – and here comes cliche number 2 – because we genuinely care about our clients, and because we wanted to work in a positive family oriented and family friendly working environment. And that is how we measure success – do we provide a positive benefit to our clients and do we provide a good work environment for our staff? By those measures we have been very successful. We love working with small business owners, inventors, creators and entrepreneurs and helping them succeed, and many of our clients have been very successful, and we are very grateful to have played even a small role in that success. And we are looking forward to the future now, having just renewed our lease for another 5 years.
So, were someone to be about to embark on a similar adventure as we have, I would say to them – if you start with the right motives, and you genuinely have an interest in helping others, then by all means, starting a new law firm is a grand adventure and I highly recommend it!
We also again want to thank and express our sincere gratitude to all the people – family, clients, our friends and everyone who has done us the great favor and honor of referring us work – without you we would not have made it the first 5 years – and we will still need your support and assistance for the next 5 years. We feel very lucky to have the clients and practice we have and are very grateful to everyone who has helped us and we look forward to the future.
Very truly yours, Mike, Kim, Pamela, Larry, Tina, Karri and Malissa – the team at Oliver & Grimsley, LLC
by Mike Oliver | Mar 29, 2018 | Blog, Content, In the News, Intellectual Property, Office, Patents, Trademarks
On March 8, 2018, Oliver & Grimsley’s
Pamela Riewerts attended the
2018 Women’s Leadership Conference, hosted by the Howard County Chamber of Commerce in Columbia, Maryland. The conference celebrated women entrepreneurs in the Maryland, D.C., and Virginia area. Phenomenal women speakers presented — such as Laura Gamble, the regional President of Maryland PNC Bank, and Col. Laurie Moe Buckhout (U.S. Army), the President and CEO of The Corvus Group, a business providing training services to scientific and technical clients.
Tracey Ellison of impactHR, First Lady Yumi Hogan, and Pamela Riewerts, Esq.—patent attorney and partner at Oliver & Grimsley, LLC.
In addition to supporting women leaders, the conference also focused on advancing women owned businesses. Speaker panels throughout the day featured topics such as “Energizing and Motivating Women,” “Leading Multi-Generational Teams to Success and Life Balance,” “Succeeding and Soaring in Male Dominated Fields,” and “Rising to and Inspiring from the Top.” Maryland’s First Lady, Yumi Hogan, also made an appearance and inspired and congratulated women on being great leaders in everyday life. The event featured sponsors such as Creatrix Inc. – providing services in software and systems engineering and architecture, and impactHR – providing HR and business solutions.
We appreciate the opportunity to participate in this worthwhile event, and for the opportunity to exhibit and speak with women business owners on the value of intellectual property.
For more information on creating value and protecting intellectual property, please contact Pamela K. Riewerts, Esq., a partner at Oliver & Grimsley, LLC at: pamela@olivergrimsley.com.
by Mike Oliver | Mar 27, 2018 | Case law, Copyrights, Entertainment law, In the News, Intellectual Property, Licensing, Litigation, Media law
Last week, the Ninth Circuit upheld the lower court ruling that the artists of the 2013 “Blurred Lines” best-selling single infringed the copyright of Marvin Gaye’s 1977 song “Got To Give It Up”.
In 2013, the family of the late Marvin Gaye sued musicians Pharrell Williams, Robin Thicke, and T.I. (Clifford Harris, Jr.), and related recording companies, for copyright infringement. “Blurred Lines” was the best-selling single in the world that year and the Gaye family believed it to be similar in composition to Marvin Gaye’s 1977 song “Got To Give It Up”. In 2015, the trial jury agreed. After three years of an appeal process brought by the musician defendants, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the infringement ruling (Williams, et al. v. Gaye, et al. Case No. 15-56880)(March 21, 2018).
The decision was not unanimous. Judge Nguyen wrote a dissenting opinion stating that the songs “differ in melody, harmony, and rhythm.” She also noted that it can be “challenging for judges untrained in music to parse two pieces of sheet music for extrinsic similarity. But however difficult this exercise, we cannot simply defer to the conclusions of experts about the ultimate finding of substantial similarity. […] Judges must still decide whether, as a matter of law, these elements collectively support a finding of substantial similarity.” This ruling ultimately changes the music industry landscape moving forward, as it is arguable that the decision improperly protects an artist’s form of musical style. The majority opinion written by Judge Milan D. Smith, Jr., however, focused mostly on the technicalities of the case and the grounds for 
appeal, determining that the trial court erred only in finding Interscope Records and T.I. liable.
The Gaye family is entitled to approximately a $5.3 million-dollar judgement and running royalties of 50% on future songwriter and publishing revenues. The damages breakdown consisted of: $3,188,528 in actual damages, plus profits of $1,768,192 against Thicke and $357,631 against Williams (and companies collecting royalties on William’s behalf). TI and his associated recording company were cleared of any infringement.
***To investigate or consider copyright protection for music, lyrics, or other works of art, or for more information, please contact Pamela K. Riewerts, Esq., partner at Oliver & Grimsley, LLC. Pamela may be reached via email at: pamela@olivergrimsley.com
