Brewery Battle Resolved My faithful readers know that I like to follow legal developments in the craft beer trademark world. I’m a fan of the product and a supporter of one of San Diego’s fastest-growing business sectors. As an aside, I’ll throw in a promotion for my good friend Omar Passons’ Craft Beer Debates – tonight’s event is sold out, but these are worth following for anyone interested in craft beer and/or discussions of issues impacting the San Diego community. Back to our regular programming: news broke today that a raging dispute between two (non-SD) breweries, Magic Hat and West…
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Keep it Legal Blog
Can I Mention My Competitor in an Ad?
May 30, 2013
Can I Mention My Competitor in an Ad? We’ve all seen countless ads where a company compares their goods or services favorably to those of their competitors. Where does this cross the line and run into a false advertising issue? H&R Block recently sued Intuit (a San Diego-based company, of course – Go Padres! – wait, does it seem like I’m playing favorites here?) over a pair of commercials that suggested that Intuit’s TurboTax tax professionals were better trained and more experienced than those at H&R Block and other retail tax outlets. So how far can you go in this…
Nutella: Sweet Spread or Trademark Bully?
May 22, 2013
Nutella: Sweet Spread or Trademark Bully? Time for a confession: I’m not really a fan of Nutella. I can’t tell if it’s too sweet for me or what it is, exactly, but I just can’t summon up the passion for the spread that everyone I know seems to share. (Calm down, Internet, I still like bacon.) Nonetheless, I will rise to the defense of its fans against what appears to be a case of trademark bullying – or, at least, overreach. Time to cross February 5 off your calendars, because World Nutella Day is no more.
Internet Meme Copyright & Trademark Battle
May 16, 2013
Internet Meme Copyright & Trademark Battle The owners of two popular Internet memes, Keyboard Cat and Nyan Cat, have sued Warner Brothers (“WB”) and 5th Cell Media (“5th”) for unauthorized use of their memes in WB and 5th’s video game series known as Scribblenauts. Memes are all over the internet – I’ll bet there are some on your Facebook timeline right now – so why are they suing over this particular use? Who can and can’t use a meme, and who needs permission to do so?
