Owners of copyright in characters are often well-advised not to press their claims too far in litigation at the risk of losing their rights altogether. This may be what motivated a quick settlement of litigation over Sherlock Holmes.
In June, 2020, the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sued Netflix and others over their
A planned Netflix movie about Sherlock Holmes’s sister is the target of a lawsuit from the estate of Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the legendary detective. The estate has asserted both copyright and trademark claims.
The estate will have to walk a narrow path to prevail on its copyright claims. All but the last
The organizers of a Salt Lake City comic convention suffered another blow in their long-running trademark battle with the organizers of the San Diego Comic-Con.
The Salt Lake event styled itself as “Salt Lake Comic Con.” The owners of the registered trademark “San Diego Comic-Con” sued for infringement. Nearly six years of litigation culminated in
Just over a year ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that a century-old ban prohibiting the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) from registering “scandalous” and “immoral” trademarks violates the First Amendment.
Last week, the Supreme Court granted certiorari to determine whether they agree that the so-called “Scandalous Clause”
It is not often that a court of law can issue a landmark opinion laden with profanity and sexual innuendos. But last Friday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit seized the opportunity in a colorful decision holding the refusal of the United States Patent
Fox associates Megan Center and Elizabeth Patton wrote a duo of posts for Fox’s advertising law blog Above the Fold examining a trademark dispute surrounding the term “Coachella.” The case relates to entertainment festivals not associated with the organizers of the well-known annual event in Indio, California. As Megan lays out in her post:
I’ve blogged here and here about the pending trademark infringement case brought by SDCC, the registered owners of the San Diego Comic-Con mark, against the producers of Salt Lake Comic Con. The Utah group had launched an aggressive social media campaign to
The stakes just raised in an imminent trial over the validity of the San Diego Comic-Con trademark. What started out as a straightforward trademark dispute has now implicated First Amendment free speech issues.
The underlying case involves an action by SDCC, which
A federal judge in San Diego has cleared for trial a case that may strip San Diego Comic-Con from trademark protection.
First, some background. Even a registered trademark such as Comic-Con can lose protection if it becomes generic, that is, if consumers
Charlie Nelson Keever writes:
The Supreme Court ruled this morning that a federal law that prohibits the government from registering trademarks that “disparage” others violates the First Amendment.
Members of an Asian-American rock band filed a lawsuit after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) kept the band from registering its name, The Slants, a