Is there room in the trademark world for more than one cartoon mouse? Disney doesn’t seem to feel that there is, and they’ve finally decided to take action against one of the world’s most popular electronic music artists.
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Archives: Entertainment Law
Can Fictional Products Infringe Real-World Trademarks?
August 26, 2014
Someone needs to put a stop to this kind of nonsense. In The Dark Knight Rises, a few references are made to a fictional software product known as “clean clate,” which can erase all information about a person’s past. This is handy if you are Catwoman and you live in a fictional comic-book universe. Fortres Grand (yes, apparently that’s how they spell it) is a software company that sells a product, named “Clean Slate,” which erases the data on an individual computer. It’s been on the market since 2000. Since 2001, they’ve held a USPTO trademark registration for the mark…
Copyright Issue: Can You Play Music in Your YouTube Videos?
July 30, 2014
YouTube star Michelle Phan, who posts videos about makeup, has been sued by the Ultra recording and publishing companies (we’ll just call them “Ultra”). The suit alleges copyright infringement based on the music soundtracks in Phan’s videos. As of this writing, Phan’s YouTube channel has 6,749,142 subscribers and 981,217,011 views, so, while her videos may not be everyone’s thing (I don’t happen to watch a whole lot of makeup tutorials myself), there are big dollars and a lot of viewer eyeballs at stake. So – can you play music in your YouTube videos?
Tyler Perry’s Trademark Fight Over “What Would Jesus Do”
July 8, 2014
In a story that carries no trace of irony whatsoever, the US Patent & Trademark Office Trademark Trial and Appeal Board has ruled in a dispute between two television producers over the title WHAT WOULD JESUS DO.
