Kickstart: A doggone interesting Supreme Court case

A squeaky vinyl dog toy just had its day in court — the highest court in the land.

The toy, styled to resemble a bottle of Jack Daniel's whiskey but instead labeled as "Bad Spaniels," is at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court case argued before the justices March 22 that is centered on copyright and trade infringement.

VIP Products LLC is an Arizona manufacturer of pet toys that was sued by Jack Daniel's Properties Inc., with Jack Daniel's looking to protect its trademark while VIP Products argues that "America's leading distiller of whiskey ... lacks a sense of humor," VIP says in court documents.

"In the playful parodic tradition that has ranged over a half century from Topps's Wacky Packages trading cards through 'Weird Al' Yankovic, VIP put out a chewable dog toy. VIP has never sold whiskey or other comestibles, nor has it used 'Jack Daniel's' in any way (humorously or not). It merely mimicked enough of the iconic bottle that people would get the joke," its attorney said in paperwork filed with the court.

A lower court found that consumers would confuse the "Bad Spaniels" toy with Jack Daniel's liquor and barred VIP from continuing to make the item, but a U.S. Court of Appeals reversed that decision leading to the case going to the Supreme Court, the website SCOTUSblog wrote.

VIP's Silly Squeakers line also includes Cataroma Extra styled to look like a Corona beer bottle, a Heini Sniffin' toy mimicking a bottle of Heineken beer and Panta soda to copy a can of Fanta-brand soft drinks.

In the movie The Shawshank Redemption, protagonist Andy Dufresne uses his knowledge of geology and a rock hammer to break through a shoddily built wall and escape prison. In Newport News, Va. — in real life — two inmates used a toothbrush to aid in their escape through a poorly made wall on March 20.

The two were arrested without incident at an IHOP restaurant the next day about 10 miles from the prison.

"The Newport News Sheriff's Office preliminary investigation discovered the two men [exploited] a construction design weakness utilizing primitive-made tools constructed from a toothbrush and metal object," NNSO said in a March 22 news release. "Those tools facilitated their access to untied rebars between the walls. Once gaining access to the rebar, they used it to further make their escape."

Newport News officials and an engineering team are looking for ways to "mitigate" the weakness but did not release specifics about it due to "security reasons."

Officials also did not say whether they will confiscate plastic toothbrushes.

Ethernet marks its 50th anniversary in a few weeks and one of its creators has been named the recipient of the 2022 Association for Computer Machinery (ACM) A.M. Turing Award for the invention, standardization and commercialization of Ethernet.

When Bob Metcalfe, professor emeritus in the Chandra Family Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, developed Ethernet while working at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, it relied on plastic-wrapped cables and molded connectors. Today, most systems have integrated Ethernet systems that allow them to connect without wires.