When we think of branding, we often think of trademarks, but when a logo is based on creative artwork, it can also involve copyright. This is so in a dispute between basketball great Kawhi Leonard and his former sponsor Nike over a logo based on a drawing by Leonard...
Intellectual Property Litigation
Collectively scrambling to contain the damage from deepfakes
You may not know the word for it, but you, like many people, probably saw the recently doctored video of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The “deepfake” made it look like she was slurring her words, perhaps implying that she was under the influence of alcohol. The...
Songwriters say “Game On” in copyright infringement lawsuit
On June 19, songwriter Heidi Merrill and three other cowriters filed a copyright infringement suit in U.S. District Court in New York against singer Carrie Underwood, the National Football League, NBCUniversal Media, LLC, and several related defendants. The complaint...
Default judgment in Kardashian trademark, right of publicity suit
Kim Kardashian is in the intellectual property news again. We shared information just last week about her controversial choice of the word “kimono” for branding her new line of lingerie.On July 2, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of...
Part 2: Vigorous disputes over Frida Kahlo intellectual property
In our last post, we talked about disputes over the right to use Mexican artist Frida Kahlo’s persona, image and name in 65 years after her untimely death. We introduced the parties involved and the dispute between Kahlo’s surviving relatives and the Frida...
Part 1: Commercial rights to name and image of artist Frida Kahlo
Her image is unmistakable. Black hair usually pulled away from her face. Dark, thick eyebrows. Serious, unsmiling expression. Iconic Mexican painter Frida Kahlo lived with disability and controversy throughout her short, but dramatic, life. She died at 47 in 1954,...
Another video game subject of intellectual property lawsuit
We have written in this space before about video games raising issues of intellectual-property ownership. It makes sense. Many video games reproduce aspects of true life in artistic or graphical ways. Sometimes, creative video-game content may intersect with actual...
Copyright, the First Amendment and the right of publicity
Robert Barbera, who photographs celebrities, has sued pop singer Ariana Grande because she uploaded photographs of herself to Instagram that he had taken and posted online. What could be wrong with posting pictures of yourself, even if someone else created them?After...
Commercial use of Steve McQueen’s name in dispute again
This time, the dispute is over cardigan sweaters. Last time, it was over luxury cars. In both cases, Chadwick McQueen, the son of deceased actor Steve McQueen, objected to companies using his father’s name to sell their products.In August 2018, we shared...
Happy-little-tree painter’s right of publicity at issue
We recently told readers about a lawsuit filed by Car-Freshner Corporation -- the owner of the trademark for the iconic tree-shaped car air fresheners -- against Bob Ross Inc., called BRI, and its merchandiser for selling air fresheners for vehicles also in the shape...