I ♡ Trademarks NewsletterIssue #400
Bri Van Til | September 03, 2024
Catchphrases (Even If Nobody’s Throwing Them)
The company managing Harry Caray’s estate is suing over the use of HOLY COW, a phrase he popularized and that the company owns trademarks for.
In the week since we discussed Jools Lebron’s very depressed, very mind-aching response to someone registering a trademark for her catchphrase, we’ve seen all sorts of trademark experts weighing in and some villainizing the registrant. But here’s what the USPTO’s Jason Lott has to say about it.
Lebron says the issue has been “handled.”
How has power shifted for creators in their ability to protect their catchphrases?
Steph Curry has filed a trademark application for NUIT. NUIT., a phrase popularized after the Olympics.
ARTicles
The judge in the artists’ copyright infringement lawsuit against Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt opted not to dismiss the trademark portions of the suit.
If a thing exists on the internet and someone produces something similar to it, it must be infringement, right?
How are our attitudes and opinions about originality in art shifting as AI is becoming more prevalent? And how might that impact copyright protection?
Beats Me
Outkast is suing ATLiens for using the term, which the say “was invented by Outkast” and which was the title of the group’s 1996 album.
Mariah Carey is asking a judge to dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit against her. It’s got her feeling emotions.
The Foo Fighters want it known that they didn’t grant Former President Trump permission to play their song, and they’ll be donating royalties from the song to the Harris campaign. The family of Isaac Hayes also object to his song being played at Trump rallies, but they’re suing over the association.
What do ABBA, Ozzy Osbourne, CCR, and Linkin Park all have in common? They’re on this massive list of musicians who have objected to Former President Trump using their music.
Professional Concerns
You have the training, so get your career on track with this GC position at Amtrak.
Honigman is looking for a director of practice operations for its property—both intellectual and real estate—practices.
By now, you have being IP counsel down to an Exact Science(s).
I don’t know if you’re looking for a trademark paralegal position, but I thought I’d Minxion it just in case.
It’d be really cool if you got this job as associate director for privacy at Blizzard.
Have an open role on your team? Send a link to your job listing to [email protected], and we’ll publish it in our next newsletter.
Odds and Ends
Check out this great guest blog post about Latinx trademark owners.
Did you know Google offers scholarships to pay for some STEM conferences? Students should apply soon; the deadline is next week.
El Salvador has passed new IP legislation.
According to this article, 28% of papers discussing government-funded patent research fail to acknowledge the funding. This can have significant consequences for benefit analyses, march-in rights, and more.
The USPTO has released a beta version of their new TTAB Center.
By the way, this is our 400th issue of this newsletter. Isn’t that crazy? You can check out past issues here.