Alt Legal IP News – Issue #59
Hannah Samendinger | October 17, 2017
Check out our latest episode of Alt Trademarks. I spoke with Erik Pelton about his unique practice, being an examiner, and mentoring young attorneys. Check out the episode here (be sure to check out his new website too).
Credits & Taglines
– The production company behind the Simpsons has filed trademark applications for their closing credits logo, animation, and jingle.
– Buzzfeed abandoned the tagline ‘All the news that’s too lit for print‘ after hearing from the lawyers for The New York Times.
– A man filed a trademark application for “Vegas Strong,” which was not well received. Even if he had pursued the application, he may not have been successful.
So Hip
– A preliminary injunction was granted against Filmchella, described as the “Coachella for movies,” in their ongoing trademark dispute with Coachella.
– Pending litigation has raised the question, who really owns tattoos? A lawyer explains.
– With recorded music sales down, most artists rely heavily on live shows and festivals. Those festivals raise a variety of legal questions.
– Richard Prince is famous in law schools and in art circles for his copyright battles. But before him, Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg fought copyright battles of their own.
Music to My Ears
– A New York judge, after reviewing Italian copyright law, found that an 88-year-old composer cannot reclaim rights to his film scores.
– Twitter users identified some inspiration in case you need to write a law school exam question.
– A copyright lawsuit has sparked a bizarre music expert dispute.
– Jay Z dodged a $7 million lawsuit over the Roc-A-Fella Records logo after the plaintiff was unable to produce a contract for the logo creation.
Odds and Ends
– The Supreme Court declined to review a petition asserting that “google” is generic.
– The owner of the “Amazing Stories” trademark registration believes Steven Spielberg and Apple may be trying to bypass his rights.
– Qualcomm was fined $773 million by the Taiwanese government over their patent licensing business.
– If you missed the first season, now is a great time to start listening to season 2 (and old episodes) of “More Perfect,” a great podcast covering Supreme Court cases.