Disclaimers: The Solution to Source Confusion in Sports Merchandising?
William Wheeler This Article evaluates the ramifications of modern trademark law in the context of sports apparel and logos. Collegiate and professional sports teams have utilized modern trademark law to enact a licensing regime where third-party companies must pay royalties to produce apparel with collegiate logos. This regime assumes the inherent value of trademarks on sports apparel is derived from their association with the teams they represent, not the logo itself. This Article examines various approaches courts have taken to address the dichotomy between the necessary consumer association and the reality that the logos themselves are what draw consumers. Most...
From Canvas to Designer Cloth: The Exploitative Nature of the Fair Use Doctrine in the Arts
Victoria Schmidt This Essay examines the controversial launch of the 2020 COACH® x Basquiat Collection featuring the signature image of Jean- Michel Basquiat on Coach purses and clothing. These signature images were part of a larger work of art by Basquiat that aimed to critique racial segregation, police brutality, and the capitalistic pull of American society. Basquiat supporters critique the collaboration as a misappropriation of the artist’s message. Under this assumption, this Essay evaluates the scope of the fair use doctrine through a hypothetical copyright infringement claim against Coach. This Essay examines the provisions of current copyright laws and advocates...
Lord of the Gadflies: Dispelling Confusion over Celebrity Likeness by Applying the Right of Publicity to Commercial Speech on Social Media
Nicholas Turgiss Celebrities have increasingly used social media to market themselves. This trend has given rise to confusion as to the extent of a celebrity’s right over their own likeness. This article discusses the right of publicity and argues that because celebrity social media accounts have significant commercial aspects, celebrities’ likenesses on those accounts should receive protective commercial speech interests. This article also urges courts to recognize these protective interests in celebrity social media accounts and provide additional protection to smaller social media influencers from the appropriation of their own likenesses. Read Full Text Here
“Fair Use” Trumps Likelihood of Confusion in Trademark Law the Supreme Court Rules in KP Permanent v. Lasting Impression
Michael Fuller In KP Permanent Make-Up, Inc., v. Lasting Impression I, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court held that a defendant asserting the affirmative defense of fair use in response to a claim of trademark infringement does not have to shoulder the burden of proving there was no likelihood of confusion as a result of their fair use. The Supreme Court granted KP Permanent’s petition for certiorari in this matter to resolve a split among six of the federal courts of appeal. This article will first consider both the common law and statutory history underlying the fair use doctrine of trademark law....
Been Deep Linked? Apparent Authority Might Link You to Liability
Tan Pham Current trends in trademark law have not met the issue of deep linking with open arms. To date, there is a dearth of cases that touch on deep linking and trademark infringement. Cases such as Ticketmaster Corp. v. Tickets.com dismissed claims of deep linking as trademark infringement with little explanation, simply stating that deep linking itself is not a trademark violation absent “confusion of source.” Yet, there is no case to set the boundaries at the other end of when deep linking would be trademark infringement; it can be implied then that the traditional tests of likelihood of confusion would most...