Cracker Barrel Trademark Battle Kraft Foods and Cracker Barrel Old Country Store are in a heated legal battle over the rights to the trademark CRACKER BARREL. This case is interesting not only because of the fame and reach of both companies, but also because the parties have been using variations of the “Cracker Barrel” name since the 1940s (in the case of Kraft Foods’ “Cracker Barrel Cheese”) and the 1960s (in the case of the Cracker Barrel restaurants). While it’s common for identical marks to be used in connection with separate types of goods and services, this case illustrates the…
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Keep it Legal Blog
The Supreme Court’s Landmark First User Copyright Decision
March 27, 2013
The Supreme Court’s Landmark First User Copyright Decision Last week the United States Supreme Court issued a landmark copyright ruling in Kirtsaeng v. Wiley (link goes to a PDF of the full decision). The case concerned the “First Sale” Doctrine, which holds that once a consumer lawfully purchases a copyrighted good, the distribution rights embodied in the copyright are exhausted, and the owner of the product has the right to sell or otherwise dispose of that individual good as he or she pleases. To put it another way, if I buy a copy of Baseball Prospectus 2013 from Amazon, read…
Can You Sue the BBB for an F?
March 20, 2013
Can You Sue the BBB for an F? Can you sue the Better Business Bureau for giving your business an “F?” And why should all consumer-facing businesses care take note of this issue?
Oz the Great and Copyrightable
March 12, 2013
Oz the Great and Copyrightable Disney’s newest fantasy-adventure, Oz the Great and Powerful, was a box office hit last weekend. Filmgoers managed to overlook the absence of certain well-known elements of the Wizard of Oz, most notably Dorothy Gale and her ruby slippers. Was this just because the new Oz movie is a prequel to the beloved classic? Or does the answer require a journey into the Haunted Forest of intellectual property law?
