-
-
Case Review
-
Recent Posts
Categories
Archives
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
Category Archives: Trademark
Much like businesses protecting their trademarks, celebrities similarly have to be aggressive protecting their publicity rights. While sometimes their actions may come across as a bit overbearing (Apple’s “appstore” lawsuits have received this criticism), companies and celebrities have to do this in order to protect their trademark and publicity rights. If they do not, a court is more likely to rule in favor of defendants, as it may appear that the business or celebrity abandoned or did not care enough about their legal rights. Why should we enforce their rights, a court might reason, if they did not appear to care about them? The maker of an eyelash-lengthener product is facing threats from the Kardashian legal team over her “KardashianLash” product. Sarah Ehrlich applied for a trademark for the name and said that she was planning to donate her proceeds to an orphanage in Honduras, but the Kardashians are not…
Read More »
One of the tougher areas of trademark law is differentiating between suggestive trademarks and descriptive trademarks. On the spectrum of trademark types, these fall in the middle, between generic marks that do not merit trademark protection and fanciful and arbitrary marks that do. Companies are usually in the position of arguing that their mark is a suggestive one, which is more likely to receive protection than a descriptive mark. The gap between the two is that suggestive marks require some leap of imagination to connect the mark with the product, whereas descriptive marks do not. Descriptive marks describe basic aspects of a product like its function or use. Examples of trademarks that a court has ruled are descriptive include: “Oatnut” for a bread that contained oats and hazelnuts, “Doc-Control” for software that manages a user’s documents, and “1-888-MATRESS” for a mattress retail phone service. Other descriptive marks may just use…
Read More »
In a post a few weeks ago, we highlighted how valuable celebrity names are, even well after their passing. Celebrities like Michael Jackson or Marilyn Monroe will continue to earn tens or hundreds of million dollars a year after their death. It is up to their heirs to protect their names and the commercial endeavors with which their names become associated. Bob Marley is another celebrity who earns millions after death. He died in 1981 at the age of 36, but he continues to earn about $6 million for his heirs. Marley’s family is now in a trademark infringement and publicity rights battle with Marley’s half-brother, Richard Booker. Marley’s widow and nine of his children claim that Booker has been using Marley’s name in the phrase “Mama Marley” to sell fish, fish and chips, fish cakes, fish fillets and fish sausages, amongst other fish-related products. Booker has also allegedly been…
Read More »