Overlawyered » fans as infringers

Fans can’t use Illinois mascot

Walter Olson — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 15:27:49 +0000

“A Chief Illiniwek performance planned for homecoming weekend has been postponed indefinitely after the University of Illinois threatened legal sanction.” [Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette] Update: sponsors plan to proceed anyway.

Tags: colleges and universities, fans as infringers, Illinois

Fans can’t use Illinois mascot is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

September 21 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 13:29:08 +0000

Facing four harassment claims, embattled Philadelphia housing chief files his own suit for $600K+ [Inquirer]
“Ohio State Abuses Trademark Law to Suppress a Fan Magazine and Website” [Paul Alan Levy, CL&P]
“Judge Dismisses Baltimore Blight Suit Against Wells Fargo, Will Allow Refiling” [ABA Journal]
Trial lawyer taking behind-the-scenes hand in Louisiana politics [OpenSecrets via Tapscott]
“Are hedge funds abusing bankruptcy?” [Felix Salmon and WSJ]
North Carolina alienation-of-affection law strikes again: “’Mistress Ordered to Pay $5.8 Million’ to Wronged Wife” [Volokh, Althouse]
“Lawyers take a haircut on a contingency fee in Colorado” [Legal Ethics Forum]
ADA lawsuits close another beloved eatery [Stockton, Calif.; six years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: alienation of affection, Baltimore, bankruptcy, fans as infringers, Louisiana, North Carolina, Philadelphia, trademarks

September 21 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

NFL trademark lawyers vs. New Orleans t-shirt sellers

Walter Olson — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:12:44 +0000

Unauthorized use of “Who Dat?” and a fleur-de-lis. [Peter Finney, Times-Picayune/NOLA] More: and a cartoon.

Tags: fans as infringers, football, trademarks

NFL trademark lawyers vs. New Orleans t-shirt sellers is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Annals of sports trademarks

Walter Olson — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:55:24 +0000

Two Chicago grocery store chains, Jewel and Dominick’s, bought full-page ads in “a special commemorative issue of Sports Illustrated magazine dedicated to [Michael] Jordan and his career”. The ads saluted the Chicago Bulls great for his achievements. Jordan proceeded to sue them for trademark infringement. [Chicago Breaking Sports, Tactical IP via Legal Satyricon]

Tags: Chicago, fans as infringers, sports, trademarks

Annals of sports trademarks is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Companies vs. their fans: Pez sues Pez museum

Walter Olson — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:31:42 +0000

The famous maker of candies and candy-dispensers is suing the owners of the Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia in Northern California, claiming that its venture into Pez homage, which includes a Guinness-record largest replica of a Pez dispenser, infringe the firm’s trademarks and “deceive the public into thinking that the museum is operating under the authority of Pez.” [San Mateo County Times via Doctor Popular/Laughing Squid and BoingBoing] On Pez’s jealousy of its name, see this 1999 post; more on fans-as-infringers here.

More: Ron Coleman is being disrespectful (“You can’t handle a real Pez museum”); Brian Baxter, AmLaw Daily.

Tags: fans as infringers

Companies vs. their fans: Pez sues Pez museum is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Is fan fiction legal? Fans are understandably nervous.”

Walter Olson — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:36:54 +0000

…many commentators, and indeed, many fans themselves, operate on the rueful assumption that fan fiction does in fact infringe copyright.

Undaunted by this, Rebecca Tushnet, a professor of law at Georgetown University, and a keen fan fiction writer herself, wants to take fan fiction out of the legal shadows where it has operated, more or less at sufferance, for decades, and carve out a legal place for it within the US doctrine of fair use. She has recently helped found the Organization for Transformative Use, with the mandate to establish fan fiction within the parameters of legal, non-infringing use.

(Grace Westcott, “Friction over Fan Fiction”, Literary Review of Canada, Jul./Aug., via A&L Daily; our posts on fans as infringers).

Tags: copyright, fans as infringers, publishers

“Is fan fiction legal? Fans are understandably nervous.” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Update: BBC backs off

Walter Olson — Sat, 17 May 2008 18:27:06 +0000

From its pursuit of the knitting-pattern Doctor Who fan. (Telegraph, May 17; earlier).

Tags: fans as infringers, United Kingdom

Update: BBC backs off is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Doctor Who’s new enemy: the BBC lawyers”

Walter Olson — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:33:30 +0000

“A Doctor Who fan who gave away knitting patterns which created vague recreations of the programme’s aliens has been threatened with legal action by the BBC for copyright infringement.” (Andy Bloxham, Daily Telegraph, May 14). More: Times Online.

Tags: broadcasters, copyright, fans as infringers, United Kingdom

“Doctor Who’s new enemy: the BBC lawyers” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

J.K. Rowling vs. fan guide trial

Walter Olson — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:41:34 +0000

The famous author testified in a Manhattan courtroom in her case against RDR Books, publisher of a “Harry Potter Lexicon” that her lawyers say is at best a derivative knock-off of her work; the WSJ law blog’s Dan Slater has coverage here, here, and here. We covered the suit Jan. 29.

Tags: copyright, fans as infringers

J.K. Rowling vs. fan guide trial is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Harry Potter fan guides, cont’d

Walter Olson — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:03:45 +0000

Times business columnist Joe Nocera weighs in (“A Tight Grip Can Choke Creativity”, New York Times, Feb. 9). Earlier: Jan. 19.

Tags: copyright, fans as infringers

Harry Potter fan guides, cont’d is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system