I can’t tell exactly what is going on from this AutoWeek story but the Caliph of Configuration Marks, Glenn Mitchell did some digging. Someone named Brock is attempting to import the coupe pictured on top. Race car legend Carroll Shelby attempted to stop the importation at customs on the basis of a registration for the
Free tip (as I confront this issue for the millonth time) when drafting a licensing or distribution agreement. Make the following point unambiguous:
“Licensee is not authorized to register or use domain names reflecting the TRADEMARK or variant thereof in whole or in part.”
For Japanese Baseball fans: the Hanshin Tigers have come to a settlement with a fan who registered the trademark HANSHIN VICTORY. Via the Mainichi Daily News.
Not sure what to make of this IPKAT item on fictional characters, The Tweenies, suing the BBC for human rights violations under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The piece notes that fictional entites such as corporations can assert rights under this convention so why not ficiutional characters as well.
EasyJets ads may be confusing but they are not offensive. While reprimanded for ads that don’t clearly disclose fare information, its ads that disclose women’s breasts with the tagline “Discover Weapons of Mass Distraction” were found by the UK Advertising Advertising Authority to be distasteful but not offensive. Via AdRants. JupiterResearch reports that
The Sierra Club advises us that:
Hummerdinger.com is a work of parody and is in no way affiliated with or authorized by General Motors Corporation, as far as we know. Also, any resemblances or similarities between this aforementioned work of parody and real life are either a) crafted with satiric intent or b) complete and
Via Prof. Lessig’s blog, a movie review from Newsweek of THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMAN. It is not a rave review of the movie, but it is a rave review of artists reworking material in the public domain.
Tidbit: The movie has a character referred to AN INVISIBLE MAN because of prior rights in
The PYCNOGENOL case, discussed here previously, has been affirmed by the Ninth Circuit. Defendant, a competitor of plaintiff, placed plaintiff’s trademark in its website’s meta-tags. Such use caused confusion and therefore did not pass the Ninth Circuit’s test for nominative fair use. There is no discussion as to whether defendants use caused initial interest confusion
When domain names expire they leave skeletons – networks of inbound links that continue to funnel traffic to that name, even if ownership has changed. Via eWeek, we learn that Microsoft owned HARDWARE-UPDATE.COM and used the name for a site featuring Windows drivers. The domain name is embedded in various error messages in Windows
A loyal Trademark Blog reader forwarded us this Wine Spectator article about the use of the JOHN HANCOCK signature on wine. In this case the winemaker’s name is John Hancock and that is his signature. Nevetheless, he has received a protest from the John Hancock insurance company.
Yes, you can fairly identify yourself as the