Tag Archives: right of publicity

The Black Hole of Misappropriation: Astronaut’s Right of Publicity and Trademark Claims Survive Summary Judgment

Is astronaut David Scott more like fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin or NASA pilot Chuck Yeager? Scott was the Commander of the Apollo 15 mission and the seventh person to walk on the moon, so the obvious answer is Aldrin. However, when it comes to the right of publicity, Scott has much more in common with Yeager, at least according to Judge Nathanael Cousins of the Northern District of California in Scott v.… More

“A Gronking To Remember” Plaintiffs Lose Right Of Publicity Appeal

For those of you in desperate need of Christmas present ideas for a New England Patriots fan, you can rest assured that your ironic backup option – a copy of the romance novel, A Gronking to Remember – is still available for sale. Truth be told, the self-published volume was not in serious danger of becoming unavailable, but the recent Sixth Circuit opinion in Roe v.… More

Sue-per Bowl Shuffle III: The Year In NFL-Related Intellectual Property Litigation

Two years ago, I started worrying about what would happen if someone at a Super Bowl party asked me to explain an NFL-related lawsuit, particularly one of those intellectual property lawsuits that sports fans assume IP lawyers know about. This anxiety led me to put together the Sue-per Bowl Shuffle I and Sue-per Bowl Shuffle II: guides to trademark, copyright, patent and other intellectual property disputes concerning the NFL during 2014 and 2015 respectively.… More

Can Private Photos Be Used In Political Ads Without Permission? Colorado Court Rejects Gay Couple’s Misappropriation Claim; Copyright Claim Survives

Capture

When we upload family pictures to the internet, we understand that, in theory, anyone in the world might download them and use them for some nefarious purpose.  However, we usually take comfort in the fact that most of us just aren’t interesting enough to be noticed. But that wasn’t the case for New Jersey couple Brian Edwards and Thomas Privitere.

In 2010,… More

IP Dispatches from the Political Front: Mitt Slings Copyrighted Mud at Newt

newtandmitt

Along with January’s hot activity in the race for the Republican Presidential nomination, we also saw the emergence of two more stories about the intersection of intellectual property and political ads.

One issue is “déjà vu all over again”: political fair use. We are once again confronted with the question of to what extent the fair use doctrine (http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html) allows for the use of copyrighted news clips in political advertisements.… More