On July 31, 2015, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling celebrates her 50th birthday, according to muggle sources. The enormous success of Rowling’s literary creation and its associated multimedia empire has spawned countless jealousies, countless imitators, countless parodists and countless pirates. The franchise has kept dozens if not hundreds of lawyers busy with precedent-setting copyright cases, trademark disputes, First Amendment battles over religious expression,… More
Monthly Archives: July 2015
A Tale Of Trade And Trademarks: General Cigar Co., Inc. v. Empresa Cubana Del Tabaco
The United States has taken several recent steps towards normalizing its ties with Cuba and, just yesterday, the two countries re-opened embassies in each other’s capitals for the first time since 1961. Despite these developments, one thing that remains largely unchanged for now is the Cuban embargo. Enforced by the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC),… More
Lego Mark Wars: Toy Giant Snaps Together Two Favorable 3D Trademark Rulings in Europe
On June 16, 2015, Lego Juris A/S obtained two favorable decisions from the General Court of the European Union which will afford protection to famous Lego “minifigure” as a three-dimensional (3D) trademark; a protection that has been denied to its even more famous standard building brick.
For many years the Danish company, founded by Mr. Ole Kirk Christiansen, relied on patents that were filed at the end of the 1950s. … More
Right of Publicity Claims by Athletes Nearly Shut Out in 2015
When we published our Sue-per Bowl post, 2015 looked like it would be a good year for right of publicity claims brought by athletes. On January 6, 2015, the Ninth Circuit in Davis v. Electronic Arts held that the First Amendment did not compel dismissal of right of publicity claims brought by former NFL stars who appeared in the “historic teams” option of the Madden NFL computer game.… More