The late Tupac Shakur might no longer have any say over how his image is used, but that doesn’t mean you can use a photograph of the famed rapper without getting permission from the photographer. [More]
infringement
Costco To Pay $19.4M To Tiffany & Co. For Selling Bogus ‘Tiffany’ Rings
By 8.15.17
Costco learned a very expensive lesson this week: A “Tiffany” ring is a specific product sold by a specific company; not just a generic name for any diamond engagement ring. Now the warehouse retailer must pay Tiffany & Company $19.4 million for marketing and selling “Tiffany” diamond rings that had nothing to do with the famed jewelry store. [More]
Red Lobster In Legal Battle With Music Festival Over The Word “Summerfest”
By 7.5.17
People tend to add suffixes like “-fest,” “-athon,” or “-palooza” to just about any event these days, but some of these promotional names are well established and protected by registered trademarks. Which is why a beloved Wisconsin music festival is taking seafood chain Red Lobster to court over its use of “Summerfest.” [More]
Photographer Sues Forever 21, Urban Outfitters Over Tupac T-Shirt
By 6.2.17 — Updated: 6.9.17
Urban Outfitters and Forever 21 are not strangers to lawsuits claiming they’ve stolen designs or elements of designs from others in order to make sales: from textile designs to ornaments. Now, the two retailers are facing a lawsuit together, after a celebrity photographer claimed the companies illegally used photographs he took of Tupac Shakur on T-shirts. [More]
Run-DMC Suing Online Retailers, Including Amazon and Walmart, For $50 Million
By 12.30.16
Run-DMC might have broken up 14 years ago, but the name and the musical legend live on in the world of licensed, endorsed merchandise. Unfortunately, according to a new lawsuit, the Run-DMC name also lives on in infringing merchandise being sold by major online stores. [More]
‘Game Of Thrones’ Still Most-Pirated Show On TV, Despite HBO Efforts
By 12.27.16
HBO has a bit of a challenge on its hands: every new episode of its mega-hit Game of Thrones is viewed by tens of millions of fans… but a huge percentage of them aren’t actually HBO subscribers. They’re pirating the show, instead. And once again, the show’s most recent season has landed at the top of the “most-torrented” lists for the year. [More]
Budweiser Accused Of Illegally Using Official Tribal Logo & Slogan In Local Beer Ads
By 6.15.16
“Immoral, unethical, oppressive, unscrupulous”: those are the adjectives a Native American tribe in North Carolina chose in a recently filed lawsuit to describe Anheuser-Busch InBev’s use of the official tribal logo and slogan in a local ad campaign. [More]
Michigan Cafe To Change Name After Caribou Coffee Wins Trademark Lawsuit
By 5.26.16
Several years ago a small New Hampshire coffee roaster won a legal victory (twice) against coffee giant Starbucks over its name “Charbucks.” Things didn’t go so well for a Michigan cafe that must retire its name “Blue Caribou Cafe” after losing a trademark lawsuit filed by Caribou Coffee. [More]
HBO Starting To Get Serious About Game Of Thrones Piracy
By 5.9.16
As you may have heard, a little cable show called Game of Thrones is back on TV, meaning it’s once again time for hordes of people to go online in search of free, pirated episodes. While HBO has previously turned a blind-ish eye to this unauthorized sharing, the network is beginning to ramp up its anti-piracy efforts. [More]
IBM Lawsuit Accuses Groupon Of Infringing On Its Patents, Including One For Prodigy
By 3.3.16
Do you remember Prodigy, the online service that had many a mid-1990s user surfing the Internet, in the early days of the World Wide Web? IBM sure does, considering it holds patents for that dinosaur of the technological age, and is accusing Groupon of infringing on two patents that grew out of Prodigy, as well as a few others, in a new lawsuit. [More]
Razor Accuses “Hoverboard” Distributor Swagway Of Infringing On Patent
By 12.4.15
Although “Hoverboard” scooters – you know, those boards that don’t actually hover at all, in spite of the nickname – have taken over the Internet and the holiday wish lists in recent months, they’ve also made headlines for all the wrong reasons, such as allegedly exploding while charging and being under investigation by federal safety officials. And now the devices are the center of a lawsuit between big-time scooter manufacture Razor and Swagway -a leading hoverboard distributor. [More]
Microsoft And Google Decide To Kiss, Make Up And Drop All Those Pesky Patent Lawsuits
By 10.1.15
Giant technology companies — they’re just like us! Instead of continuing to duke it out over a slew of patent infringement claims in court, Microsoft and Google have decided that peace is the answer, and have announced they’re dropping all pending litigation against each other. [More]
BMW Beat Google To The “Alphabet” Name And Website
By 8.11.15
Yesterday, Google announced a massive reorganization that will put the Internet giant and all its other side businesses under the umbrella of a new company called Alphabet. But don’t expect to visit Alphabet.com anytime soon, unless you want to buy a bunch of BMWs. [More]
Apple Avoids Paying $533M In Fight Over Patents, Wins A New Trial To Decide Damages
By 7.8.15
A few months after a jury ordered Apple to pay almost $533 million after finding that the iPhone giant had infringed on three patents held by a rival company, a judge has thrown out that award and ordered a new trial to determine damages in the case. [More]
Barefoot Contessa Suing California Company Over Unauthorized “Contessa Chef Inspired” Frozen Dinners
By 2.18.15
Having a famous brand might sound pretty awesome, but with a name everyone recognizes comes the hassle of trying to protect that name from others out there trying to make a buck off it. Food Network host Ina Garten, aka the Barefoot Contessa, is preparing to do battle to keep her brand her own, suing a California company for selling what she calls unauthorized look-alikes of her frozen dinners. [More]
BlackBerry Suing Makers Of Slip-On iPhone Keyboard Again, Claiming New Version Is Infringement
By 2.17.15
BlackBerry has a bone to pick with Typo, the makers of a slip-on iPhone keyboard that the mobile phone company already sued once with claims that the case infringes on its patents, and it’s not ready to let that bone go anytime soon. A new lawsuit against Typo is now on the books, this time aimed at the company’s second iteration of slip-on accessories [More]
Woman Sues Movie Theater After Being Arrested For Filming Twilight Scenes
By 7.6.10
A woman who was arrested last November during a screening of whatever Twilight movie was in theaters at the time has filed suit against the movie chain. She says that she only filmed two short sequences, the opening credits and a moment when her “favorite actor” took off his shirt. Wisely, she does not say in her lawsuit whether she’s Team Beefcake or Team Emo, or my niece would possibly go ballistic. [More]
What To Do When A Company Pulls Your Fair Use Video From YouTube
By 4.26.10
Last week Constantin Films got YouTube to pull almost all the Angry Hitler parody clips by using the website’s Content ID tracking system. The process is automatic, and YouTube immediately takes down a video once it’s been tagged. However, that also means you can use this system in reverse to get your clips back up, at least for as long as you’re in dispute with the copyright holder. Whether you do this or not will depend on how willing you are to risk a potential lawsuit later on. [More]
