The ICEE mark is owned by an entity itself owned by several of the ICEE product regional distributors, including plaintiff ICEE Distributors and defendant J&J Snack. J&J began selling ICEE frozen tubes in Plaintiff’s territory. Plaintiff received an injunction on both breach of contract and trademark dilution grounds. The Fifth Circuit affirmed the injunction
Dastar v. Fox to be Argued Today
Dastar v.Twentieth Century Fox will be argued before the Supreme Court today. The issues presented are:
1) whether the Lanham Act protects creative works from uncredited copying, even without a likelihood of consumer confusion, and 2) whether a court applying the Lanham Act may award as damages twice the defendant’s profits for purely deterrent purposes.
Miles Promotion As Material Aspect of Marlboros
Extensive trademark complaint filed by Philip Morris against alleged cigarette counterfeitors, via Amlaw.com.
Interesting aside: included in the complaint is an allegation that defendant’s imported “grey good” Marlboros (authorized when sold outside the U.S but imported against the trademark owner’s wishes). In order to overcome “trademark exhaustion” (that the trademark owner cannot exert
Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Sued for Unfair Competition and related State Torts
You can watch the war or you can watch ABC’s “Are You Hot: The Search For America’s Sexiest People.” Here, via Amlaw.com, is Howard Stern’s complaint alleging that he has acquired secondary meaning in a similar concept on his TV show in which people of undeniable beauty judge those less fortunate than they. It
Important Initial Interest Confusion Fair Use Decision – Taxes.com Case
Plaintiff and Defendant are competitors. Defendant published numerous references to Plaintiff (including news of legal troubles and consumer complaints) such that Defendant sometimes appeared as the first hit when Plaintiff’s name was used as a search term. The reference in the search engine was (accurately) labeled as “complaints about plaintiff.” Plaintiff brought false advertising claims
How Are You Spelling CNN?
Thanks to TechLawAdvisor for emailing me about this WSJ Article on the increased use of search engines. It cites a report discussed here earlier regarding the increasing use of both search engines and direct navigation to access websites. However given that the report bundles both bookmarks and URLs under the heading ‘direct navigation,’ this particular
Their Characterization, Not Mine.
Brandchannel article on the value of ‘low-brow’ brands such as WWE, NASCAR and Elvis.
Elvis belt-buckle available here.
It's Who You Know
The Trademark Blog is one of 10 Lexis Websites of the Month. Because one hand washes the other I am naming Lexis the computerized legal research service of the month.
Twomey to Head ICANN
Including A Picture of a Jack Russell Terrier
Recent UDRP cases involving Disney and Jack Russell Terriers are discussed here at UDRPLaw.net.