Why Decisionism Exists

So everyone can enjoy paragraphs like this one:

A famous fairy tale, of ancient vintage, tells of an ugly frog who, when befriended by a beautiful damsel, turns into a handsome prince, marries his rescuer, and (presumably) lives happily ever after. See Jacob Grimm & Wilhelm Grimm, The Frog-King, reprinted in 17 The Harvard Classics 47 (Charles W. Eliot ed., P.F. Collier & Son 1909). The coquí is a tree frog indigenous to Puerto Rico. Plaintiff-appellee Coquico, Inc. has not yet managed to turn the coquí into an imperial presence. It has, however, fashioned a popular stuffed-animal rendering of the coquí and, thus, turned the frog into dollars.

That's how Judge Selya's opinion begins in Coquico, Inc. v. Rodriguez-Miranda, First Cir. No. 07-2786. It's probably a good thing that all judges don't write like this. But it's definitely a good thing that at least one judge does.

The Winner: Duck Tours!

A bad day for Boston Duck Tours, this. The First Circuit has reversed the trial court's issuance of an injunction barring Super Duck Tours from using the "Duck Tours" mark. The case is Boston Duck Tours, LP v. Super Duck Tours, LLC, First Cir. No. 07-2078. This is another really long decision, but it's like catnip for intellectual property nerds.