Posted on 01/31/2014 4:15:10 AM PST by Red in Blue PA
ou've probably heard a bunch of local tire shops, strip clubs, and stereo stores promoting half-assed sales this weekend by alluding to some sort of championship football game, but not actually coming out and saying "The Super Bowl."
I, for one, am in favor of a strip club exemption for all copyright infringements as a blanket provision, but that's neither here nor there. The fact is, most companies are not allowed to use the phrases "Super Bowl" or "Super Sunday," both of which have been copyrighted by the NFL.
....
The NFL's lawyers have gone after big and small targets alike (from The Motley Fool):
A classic example occurred in 2007 leading up to Super Bowl XLI between the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears when the NFL sent a cease and desist letter to an Indiana church group that had advertised its party with an intent to charge admission. The letter led to several other church groups around the country to stop similar activities, the exact effect the NFL was seeking.
(Excerpt) Read more at sbnation.com ...
Disney has successfully sued pre-schools and daycare centers to force them to remove images of Disney characters from walls and windows. They are quite famous for suing the carp out of anybody who would infringe their copyrights, and I don’t blame them.
Yes indeed. If you notice, I was particularly careful not to mention them, by name ;)
They really have no choice. Under copyright and trademark law, if you do not protect your 'property' it becomes public domain.
Yeah, that’s got to be satire. It’s about as believable as gay weddings at the Rose Parade or the Grammies. Oh, wait....
Yes, I assumed that’s because you still work for them. I never did, so I figured I was free to say it. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind my mentioning them, because it just spreads their reputation as badasses who will sue the carp out of anybody trying to use their cartoon characters.
I agree with this philosophy because a lot of investment went into the creation of the Intellectual Property (Yes, designing Timon and Pumbah was an intellectual effort. Stop laughing!). What bugs me a bit, though, is when they pull legal shenanigans to extend the natural deadline of the copyrights, as they did for Mickey Mouse. “Steamboat Willie” was a very long time ago, yet MM is still covered.
;^)
(My wife’s sister did work there, so Mrs. Liberty’s been at the park many dozens of times. We will *never* go there...)
I left there in 2001, but the plethora of legal paperwork I signed as a condition of employment keeps me cautious. Another trick they pull is to litigate, then delay, in court actions. They terminated a bunch of retiree benefits; the folks in question sued, and it was dragged out in court, for seven years. The day before trial, they settled, but by that time, a large portion of the affected retirees had passed away, and the original terms of retirement specifically stated that benefits terminated, upon death, so the heirs were S.O.L.
I’ve never been in the park, since I stopped working there, myself.
And if you don't believe it, just ask Bayer about its former U.S. intellectual property rights in the word 'aspirin'.
Jello and Band-Aid fight to make certain their competitors make 'gelatin desserts' and 'adhesive bandages'.
Or, Xerox!
This just in, FIFA has just sued the NFL for using the term “Football.”
The heirs should have received the back payments, unless those were excluded from the settlement. If they were excluded, there are some attorneys that got away with malpractice.
I forget how they got away with it, but I agree with you.
They shouldn’t, since rugby, Canadian, mob, and Australian Rules are all football too. It always cracks me up when soccer nerds try to pull that old canard.
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