NY Times: “The Secret to Success in Publishing: Bash Bush, With Nods to a Classic“:
The cover of “Goodnight Bush” looks almost exactly like “Goodnight Moon — green and orange, with an image of a window and fireplace — and uses a similar rhyme scheme. But there the thematic similarities end.
The authors,
Plaintiff uses the mark UTAH LIGHTHOUSE in connection with goods and services that critque Mormonism. There has been extensive history between plaintiff and the LDS faith. Defendant FAIR responds to such critiques, and created a parody website that was similar in appearance to that of Plaintiff. Defendant used domain names such as UTAHLIGHTOUSE.COM to direct
Boing Boing: 50 Greatest Commercial Parodies Of All Time
Some websites are reporting that Vuitton actually sued the artist who created the Darfur t-shirt (background here), soemthing I have been unable to confirm. Here is an interesting analysis from a brand analyst from Forrester Research as to what Vuitton’s options are in a situation like this.
Counterfeit Chic: “Copying For Charity”
The Seattle Trademark Lawyer has a post on Kerusso, a seller of Christian-themed t-shirts. Several of its reported best-sellers are based on well-known trademarks. STL points to two Ninth Circuit cases, the Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. v. Penguin Books USA, Inc., 109 F.3d 1394, 1405 (9th Cir. 1997), and the Barbie Girl case, Mattel,
Prof Patry: I Was a Maid In A Porno Store II Family Guy does ‘joke’ depicted above, Carol Burnett sues, judge does good fair use analysis, Family Guy prevails.
HT Talking Points Memo.
Discuss, using the phrases ‘Cat Is Not In The Hat”, “Mastercard v. Nader” and “Weird Al Yankovic” in your answer.
UPDATE: Friend of the blog James G. points out that the ‘Here’s to the crazies’ commercial has been done before. Same question as above. As for me, I think both analyses would come out
