Alt Legal IP News – Issue #93
Hannah Samendinger | June 19, 2018
How Does This Look?
– A European Court has handed down the long-awaited decision in the Christian Louboutin ‘red soles’ dispute.
– Dog toy manufacturers love a parody product.
– Nike canceled plans for a clothing line after the Naval Academy claimed the proposed logo design infringed on their logo.
Make Believe
– Here is the story of how TV’s most popular fake beer brand came to be. The trademark application for the brand is abandoned.
– Warner Bros. is cracking down on unauthorized Harry Potter fan festivals. Some fans are likening the studio to Voldemort.
– A Chinese company held an elaborate fashion show to celebrate a collaboration with Supreme. All of the clothes, the partnership, and the man introduced as the president of Supreme were actually fake.
Some Kind of Art
– A new proposed European copyright law could make memes illegal.
– A Virginia court found fair use in a copyright infringement case between a photographer and a festival promoter using a photo to map locations for festival attendees. Check out the full decision here and the Twitter summary here.
– The judge in the 5 Pointz case issued a scathing decision against the developer, including a detailed account of how the graffiti works are federally protected.
Odds and Ends
– An inventor says Google filed patent applications for work he put in the public domain.
– At least one soccer player made sure to file trademark applications in advance of the World Cup.
– VooDoo Brewing responded to a trademark dispute by changing the name of a beer to “Non-Trademark Infringement Alma Mater IPA.”
– DJ Khaled is already enforcing trademark rights in his 18-month-old son’s name. This is an interesting article on some concerns this enforcement raises.
– A “Taco Tuesday” dispute is brewing in Australia. One restaurant sent cease and desist notices to others, alleging they have rights to the phrase.
– IP + Pride Month: The Library of Congress has put together some wonderful and very comprehensive collections by the LGBT community. I particularly liked the Van Vechten Collection and the Global Legal Monitor for LGBT rights.