I was reminded this afternoon that tomorrow is “Bring the Brood To The Factory Day” or some such nonsense. No biggie for the CEO, I thought, mine are too young and even if they weren’t I’m not bringing them in anyway. I gots me some work to do . . .

As I left work today I was informed that the dozen or so kids visiting the office tomorrow are going to go around and meet the managers in different departments to try to get a sense of what we all do. “Oh and by the way, have something ready for the children tomorrow — they’re coming to see you at around 10:30.” So, uh, these youngsters are like what ages again? “Looks like a range of 6 to 16.” Oh. I’ll do my best to make it quick.

What 6 year old doesn’t want to discuss the intersection of Federal trademark law with the retail domain name aftermarket? Or discuss fascinating developments in DNS and/or domain name related jurisprudence? Also, contract drafting strategies and compliance task force formations are interesting as all hell I’m sure, but even more so if you’re between ages 6 and 16. Don’t even get me started on the unalloyed joy of a nice technology license renegotiation. I’m not sure I could get that across to the kids so I hesitate to even try.

Anyway, 10:30 in my office tomorrow is going to consist of a one minute puppet show for the younger kids trying to explain what is a trademark, featuring diners eating at Baba Fresh in SW Portland and discussing why they are there in the first place (hint: the name had something to do with it), followed by a 90 second talk about if, why, and how my ownership and use of HannahMontanaIsHot.com could be problematic from a trademark point of view. The discussion will be strictly limited to considering the question from a trademark law standpoint. I think the kids will be glad to be done with my part of the manager talks. The smart ones, anyway.