Skip to content
Menu
Michael A. Kahn
  • Home
  • Books
  • Contact
  • About
Michael A. Kahn

Thoughts on My Looming 50th Year College Reunion

Posted on August 4, 2023 by Michael Kahn
Way back in May of 1974, I graduated from Amherst College. It was a memorable day, including joining three of best friends on the podium for a goofy commencement address to our fellow grads and their parents. That’s me, second from the left, with the telltale 1970s white belt. And like so many of us…
+

Trump’s Penis Is Back in the News! The Wild World of Trademarks

Posted on June 20, 2023 by Michael Kahn
With each new criminal indictment handed down this year, Donald J. Trump continues in his role as the gift that goes on giving to cable news. Indeed, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC often devote an entire evening’s programming to coverage of one of those indictments–or to new revelations about one of those indictments. But for…
+

Artificial Intelligence? A Cautionary Tale Starring the Chatbot Associate from Hell

Posted on June 3, 2023 by Michael Kahn
As both a trial attorney and the author of novels, I have learned to heed the words of Mark Twain, who wrote: “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn’t.” We’ve all heard remarkable true stories about amazing coincidences (twins separated at birth and reunited…
+

A Kinky Salute to the 2023 Public Domain Day. Sorry, Winnie!

Posted on January 10, 2023 by Michael Kahn
At the beginning of each year I post a blog on my law firm’s website welcoming the annual Public Domain Day, which occurs on January 1st and ushers dozens and dozens of novels, songs, and other creative works into the public domain. The copyrights in those works, first published 95 years ago, are now in…
+

Flipping Edmund Wilson the Bird: When Does a Work of Literature Qualify as–egads!–a Mystery?

Posted on October 1, 2022 by Michael Kahn
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the death of one of the leading literary critics of his time, Edmund Wilson. While many of his readers, especially in academia, admire him as the author of such influential works as To the Finland Station (1940) and Patriotic Gore (1962), for this humble scribe, whose books are…
+

What’s Going Down? How a 1960s Rock Song Confirms the Wisdom of George Santayana

Posted on September 11, 2022September 12, 2022 by Michael Kahn
Earlier this week, as I was listening to a playlist of ’60s rock classics on Spotify, I had a most unusual epiphany: proof of the truth of the most famous warning by one of the great philosophers of the 20th Century. That philosopher? George Santayana. His most famous warning? From his 1905 book The Life…
+

More Seductive Pick-Up Lines for Authors

Posted on July 11, 2022July 11, 2022 by Michael Kahn
As I have previously written, an enticing opening sentence to a novel is the author’s equivalent of a seductive pick-up line in a singles bar. You want to grab the attention of–indeed, entice–that potential reader who just picked your book off the shelf at the bookstore and, after examining the cover, opens to page 1…
+

The Trial of the Century? Man Plans and God Laughs

Posted on June 13, 2022June 13, 2022 by Michael Kahn
The editors of The Common Reader asked me to review the posthumous publication of F. Lee Bailey’s book about his role in the so-called Trial of the Century: The People v. Orenthal James Simpson, in which the former football star was charged on two counts of murder for the gruesome multiple stabbings of his ex-wife Nicole…
+

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

Posted on May 21, 2022May 21, 2022 by Michael Kahn
As I have stated before, the legal world offers up frequent new evidence in support of that hoary maxim: “Truth is stranger than fiction.” A copyright lawsuit over a farting doll? Check. A trademark registration dispute of the brand of a sucker (lollipop) for fans of the University of South Carolina Gamecocks? Check. And thus…
+

More Thoughts on the Brave New World of X-Rated Trademarks

Posted on May 9, 2022May 9, 2022 by Michael Kahn
Yes, you are looking at the one-word trademark whose registration dispute eventually reached the United States Supreme Court. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had refused to register the FUCT trademark for apparel. The ground for refusal? Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, which prohibited the registration of trademarks that were immoral or scandalous. Erik…
+
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • …
  • 18
  • Next

Michael A. Kahn

Michael's Links

  • Mike's Lawyer Bio
  • Mike's Amazon Author Page
  • Now Available! Mike's Next Rachel Gold Mystery: BAD TRUST
  • Mike's last novel: PLAYED! — "Brisk, sprightly entertainment." – Kirkus Reviews
©2023 Michael A. Kahn | Powered by Superb Themes