Something feels wrong about using someone’s image or other indicia of their persona commercially to make money without their permission. This act raises sometimes conflicting issues of privacy, free speech and commercial rights. The legal remedy that evolved for the...
In a move that is getting lots of press, New York influencer and fashion blogger Danielle Bernstein’s company WeWoreWhat (WWW) filed a lawsuit on Oct. 16 for a declaratory judgment in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Brooklyn...
Copyright law protects the creations of “original works of authorship” like those in television, movies and theater productions. A high-profile copyright dispute between iconic comedian Jerry Seinfeld and long-time creative collaborator writer and director Christian...
On April 23, the U.S. Supreme Court said that the federal Lanham Act does not require that a trademark infringer did so willfully as a precondition to the trademark owner getting back the profits the infringing party made in violation of the Act. At the time the...
On April 8, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a trademark decision holding that a multi-color pattern on product packaging can be inherently distinctive and that this inherent distinctiveness does not require a “peripheral shape or border”...
The Lanham Act (federal trademark law) does not allow generic terms to be registered as trademarks, but it does allow protection for words that are considered merely “descriptive.” Unfortunately, it’s difficult to tell where the line is. Can you take a generic word...
If you’re opening a Mexican restaurant, you don’t call it “Jenny’s.” You choose a name that carries cultural cachet and implies what you’re selling. When a Phoenix-area restaurant opened selling Asian-Mexican fusion cuisine, it hoped to capture both cultures with its...
Was the classic opening riff to Led Zeppelin’s 1971 monster hit “Stairway to Heaven” actually ripped off from the 1968 song “Taurus” by the band Spirit? That question was before a jury in 2016 and was recently on appeal before the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals....
Earlier this year, President Trump signed an executive order calling for crackdown on counterfeit or pirated goods. Specifically, it targeted U.S. companies that import, or who facilitate the import of, those goods. Now, a bipartisan bill has passed the House of...
The publishing company Chooseco owns the “Choose Your Own Adventure” trademark once owned by Bantam Books, and it has been fighting hard to protect its rights. Over the years, it has filed suit against a number of publishers and other companies that used the phrase to...
