August 29, 2006
Ze Frank on Brand
the show with zefrank: Jon Benet
Ze Frank is the producer of the show with Ze Frank . Ze often provides intelligent commentary and analysis on intellectual property and other legal issues. As I recently stated in a comment to one of his episodes: "Ze is a genius."
Previously tagged episodes of the show include: ugly myspace, the show with zefrank - 08-04-06 (honorary blawgr!), the show with zefrank - 07-20-06, the show with zefrank - 06-02-06.
See also Denise Howell's post (in the sidebar) on Top 5 Material regarding Ze on "Copyright & Control".
Posted by Kevin Heller at 07:36 PM
August 05, 2006
tall grande venti 33.8 Bolt
Starbucks Gossip has posted a hypothetical regarding whether Starbucks will be flattered -- or ready to call its lawyers when it sees this ad for tall, grande and venti burritos.
Related: Bolthouse Coffee Drink
Posted by Kevin Heller at 01:11 AM
July 03, 2006
Introducing Trademark Lawsuit Mojo
The guys at Rethink(IP) have started a weekly subscription based e-mail newsletter Trademark Lawsuit Mojo that contains trademark lawsuit filing information. Current rates are $99.99 a year or $9.99 a month. They also have a free monthly service.
Posted by Kevin Heller at 12:23 PM
May 25, 2006
FUBU told BUFU by Court
FUBU was a major client of the firm I worked for after law school. I've read so many depositions and watched countless interviews that I know everything there is to know about the history of that company.
Hilfiger was also a major client. My first post ever cited the "parody" case where Tommy Holedigger pet perfume successfully defended a claim of trademark infringement. I worked on that case and expected as much.
Given that background, I was surprised when I saw that a decision came out against GTFM, LLC (that's the Licensor for the FUBU marks) who tried to sue Universal Studios (the production company for the movie How High) for the use of BUFU logo in the film:
The characters poke fun at the FUBU name that plaintiffs use in their advertising-as an acronym for the motto, “For Us, By Us”-by using the made-up name “BUFU”-as an acronym for the phrase, “By Us, Fuck You”-in reference to one of the main characters' fictional “fashion line” of clothing. In addition to being a satirical play on words, “BUFU”-a transparent transportation of the letters in FUBU-is intended to be a parody of the persona that FUBU symbolizes in plaintiffs' advertising.United States District Court,S.D. New York. GTFM, LLC, FUBU Records, LLC, and GTFM, Inc., Plaintiffs, v. UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, INC., and Universal Music Group, Inc., Defendants. No. 02 CV. 0506(RO). May 16, 2006. Ira N. Glauber-Jaffe & Asher LLP, for Plaintiffs. Floyd A. Mandell, Kristin J. Achterhof-KattenMuchin Zavis Rosenman, for Defendants.
Thankfully, however, it wasn't my old employers who were slammed by the Judge on this one.
Update: The Editor of Blawg Review writes:
The New York Post article gets an essential point of the parody wrong.BUFU in the movie How High is an acronym for BUY us, fuck you!
An essential element of the humor of the parody is the commercialism of the FUBU logo. It's the play on the word "buy" that sets up the "fuck" if you get the parody.
Here's the transcript of the relevant scene from the movie:
What the hell are you wearing?
- BUFU! - BUFU?
"Buy us, fuck you!"
Get out! Out! Out! Out! Out!
"Buy us, fuck you."
Peter Lattman, at the WSJ Law Blog has it wrong, too.Is it clear from the reasons for judgment if Judge Richard Owen "gets" the parody, or is everybody involved in the case so taken by the f-word in the parody logo that they failed to get the joke?
It appears to me from looking at the script and the opinion that everyone missed the BUY=commercialism part of the joke, but not sure that would justify me calling the opinion FUBAR.
Good catch by Ed. though. Maybe, Universal's lawyers can fill us in.
Posted by Kevin Heller at 07:21 PM | Comments (0)
April 10, 2006
H.R. 683
What exactly is with the new trademark dilution bill?:
this is the bill that would amend the Federal Trademark Dilution Act by, among other things: (1) overruling Moseley v. V Secret, (2) clarifying the standard of proof needed to establish federal dilution of a famous trademark, (3)confirming that dilution can be established through blurring, and (4) defining “fame” as being “widely recognized by the general consuming public of the United States,” which would eliminate niche market fame.
Posted by Kevin Heller at 10:55 AM
February 08, 2006
Trademark Law for Dummies
I had no idea that they even sold a Trademark Law for Dummmies.
Related: Dealing with Dummies, For Dummies***
for: The Trademark Blog
tags: trademark
Posted by Kevin Heller at 01:52 PM
February 04, 2006
Tiffany accuses eBay of harboring counterfeirt merchandise
Tiffany's wasn't happy when it found fakes on eBay and now the retailer is suing the internet swap-meet for allowing its members to sell counterfeit jewelry on the site. [yahoo! news]
In this CNN video, Soledad O'Brien discusses the lawsuit with Daily Candy's Danielle Romano.
For more on this topic, Susan Scafidi's Counterfeit Chic does an excellent job of following the trademark counterfeiting industry.
[tags: counterfeit; trademark; infringement; dilution; tiffany; ebay]
Posted by Kevin Heller at 09:23 AM