Two years ago, a U.S. District judge ruled that artist Richard Prince infringed photographer Patrick Cariou's copyrights on several photographs depicting Rastafarians.

You can buy insurance for many different types of business liabilities, so why not insurance to protect your company from lawsuits brought by so-called "patent trolls" or non-practicing entities (NPEs)? That kind of coverage is now available for members of a group that represents digital agencies and production companies. At first glance the insurance may look like a fine idea, but some attorneys say the coverage has its drawbacks.

This past December, the feature article in our e-newsletter, Wealth of Ideas, detailed several ways that the America Invents Act has basically backfired on the American patent system. (See "America Invents Act Turns Out to Be a Law of Unintended Consequences".)

Most of us who survived college with our dignity intact are pretty content to put it behind us. But if you're not already happy to have joined the ranks of the grown-ups, this story of an alcohol-fueled trademark dispute might do the trick:

Well, at least business is booming somewhere: The plaintiff-friendly federal courts in the Eastern District of Texas saw a dramatic jump in the number of patent lawsuits filed, from 607 in 2011 to 1,263 in 2012 - a 108 percent increase in just a year.

An artist in Holland just found out that he can't trademark the name of Allah.

Over three years ago, we first told the story of Jammie Thomas-Rasset, who was found guilty of copyright infringement over 24 songs she had downloaded and shared via the Kazaa file-sharing service.

What is it with kooky shoes and lawsuits? Last June, we reported on a lawsuit between Gucci and Guess over some overpriced bowling shoes. Now we are pleased to inform you that Vibram and Fila have settled their litigation over "barefoot shoes" - AKA those funky neoprene and mesh shoes with the individual toe casings.

Over a year ago, we reported on the patent lawsuits brought by Innovatio IP Ventures LLC against a host of companies that offer free WiFi to their customers. The defendants in that litigation include over 220 individual hotels in Illinois. Interestingly, however, Innovatio didn't file lawsuits against Motorola Solutions and Cisco Systems - the companies that manufacture the WiFi equipment used in the alleged infringement.

We're all for copyright owners' rights, but this one might be stretching a bit: The owners of the copyrights to the late William Faulkner's literary works sued Sony Pictures Classics and a group of movie exhibitors because of two sentences uttered by actor Owen Wilson in Woody Allen's 2011 movie Midnight in Paris.