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Archive for the ‘False Endorsement’ Category

Activision has no free speech right to use No Doubt’s image in a video game

Monday, March 14th, 2011

No Doubt v. Activision Publishing, Inc. (2011) 192 Cal.App.4th 1018

No Doubt, a famous band, entered into a licensing agreement with Activision, publisher of the Band Hero video games, to use No Doubt’s likeness with up to three of its songs.  Activision allowed players to “unlock” the No Doubt band members to be used with other songs as well.  No Doubt sued for violation of publichity rights and unfair competition.  Activision filed an anti-slapp motion based on its alleged First Amendment right to use their personas.  (more…)

Posted in California law, False Endorsement, First Amendment, Licensing | No Comments »

Courts can’t enjoin nominative fair use of a trademark in a domain name

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. v. Tabari, 610 F.3d 1171 (9th Cir. 2010)

Defendants are independent auto brokers - the “personal shoppers” of the auto world, who specialize in buying Lexus brand cars for their clients.  They use the domain names “buy-a-lexis.com” and “buyorleaselexus.com”.  The district court granted a permanent injunction against any use of the mark Lexus in their websites.  The 9th Circuit reversed and remanded based on nominative fair use doctrine. (more…)

Posted in False Endorsement, First Amendment | 1 Comment »

Promotional Press Releases are Commercial Speech

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

General Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager (Ret.) v. Cingular Wireless LLC et al., 673 F.Supp.2d 1089 (E.D. Cal. 2009)

Back in July of 2008, TMLB reported on a case between Gen. Chuck Yeager and AT&T.  Cingular (acquired by AT&T) referenced Yeager’s breaking the sound barrier in a press release on its technology to provide cellular service after disasters.  Yeager sued based on missappropriation of his likeness and AT&T demurred.  The court ruled Yeager had pleaded sufficiently and denied AT&T’s motion.  Read the original post here.

Well, AT&T is back and this time, it’s aiming an MSJ. (more…)

Posted in California law, False Endorsement, likelihood of confusion | No Comments »

Referring to famous people in product press releases- beware a false implication of endorsement

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

Yeager v. Cingular Wireless LLC, 2008 US Dist. LEXIS 46449 (E.D. Cal. 2008) 

Ruling: Defendant’s motion to dismiss on first amendment grounds denied because the complaint plead facts on which defendant’s actions could be considered commercial speech.  Defendant’s claim that plaintiff’s achievements in breaking the sound barrier are within the public domain and therefore not subject to trademark law is unfounded because a false endorsement claim is actionable under the Lanham Act as plead by plaintiff.  Finally, defendant’s defenses regarding incidental use and permissible fair use are fact specific and therefore cannot be grounds to dismiss plaintiff’s complaint as a matter of law when plaintiff has plead sufficient facts.

(more…)

Posted in False Endorsement, First Amendment, likelihood of confusion | 1 Comment »

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