California Intellectual Property Blog

San Diego – Kawhi Leonard, the small forward for the recently crowned champions Toronto Raptors, has filed a copyright lawsuit against Nike. In the lawsuit, Leonard claims that Nike has taken a design that Kawhi created and registered it with the U.S. Copyright office and used it all without his authorization. Leonard also claims that the sports apparel company threatened to sue him for using it on his merchandise.

Leonard began a partnership with Nike in 2011 as part of a multi-year endorsement deal. The deal allowed Nike to use Leonard’s Logo during the tenure of the partnership and endorsement. While Leonard allowed Nike to use the lo Read the rest

San Diego – Lego has filed another lawsuit against a manufacturer of figurines similar to those produced by Lego. This time the defendant is Connecticut based Lakeshore Learning Material which has also been accused copyright infringement.

Lego, which is based in Denmark, believes that the potential harm to their brand is unquantifiable. Lego alleges that the damage done from the unauthorized copies of its trademarked figurines will be significant. Lego believes that Lakeshore has copied the “Minifigure” design that is trademark and copyright protected, to create figurines that are incredibly similar to that of Lego’s. The &# Read the rest

Los Angeles – If you’ve already had concerns about your privacy when it comes to Amazon’s Alexa devices or other smart speakers, don’t read this. Presently, Amazon’s smart speaker devices are engaged when you say “Alexa,” or whatever you set the wakeword to be. For example, if you said, “Alexa, shuffle Adele,” the speaker would start recording what you said after “Alexa” to get the information needed to process your request. This means that the device will only send your recorded voice to Amazon’s servers after you activated the device. Functioning under these restrictions provides a relatively formal system of communicating with a machin Read the rest

Orange County – In a lawsuit that has gone on for three years, a small Australian bootmaker has recently lost a decision and has been ordered to pay $450,000 for trademark infringement. The case involves the popular “UGG” trademark and footwear design owned by United States-based Deckers Outdoor Corporation. Deckers filed the lawsuit in March of 2016 on the claim that Sydney-based Australian Leather had willfully infringed upon the trademark by selling sheepskin-lined boots also referred to as an “Ugg.”

Deckers’ UGG boot generates over $1 billion in annual revenue for the American company. The infringing boots in question were sold i Read the rest

San Diego – Anheuser-Busch InBev recently launched a beer called Patagonia. The popular outdoor clothing retailer by the same name is claiming that consumers will be confused into thinking that the beer has something to do with the clothing company which it does not. Thus far Anheuser-Busch InBev has not backed down and so Patagonia has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit.

Patagonia was founded in California in 1973 and has grown into one of the leading outdoor retailers known for its role as being a leader in environmental activism. Two years ago Patagonia sued President Trump after he attempted to limit protected national lands. In P Read the rest

Los Angeles – Supermodel Gigi Hadid has been sued for copyright infringement for posting a photo of herself on Instagram. The lawsuit involves a photo that was taken by the paparazzi. The complaint states that Hadid used the photo without permission of the owner Xclusive-Lee, Inc.

Thus far Hadid is fighting the case. Her copyright attorney states that the claim is meritless and should be thrown out due to fair use. Thus they are planning a motion to dismiss. Read the rest

Orange County – A book titled Oh, the Places You’ll Boldly Go!, a mashup of Star Trek and Dr. Seuss, created a copyright legal dispute which recently came to a conclusion. Dr. Seuss Enterprises filed a copyright and trademark infringement lawsuit but has now lost on summary judgment.

ComicMix, the creator of the book, prevailed on trademark claims related to the book a year ago. At that time, U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino concluded that the book wasn’t explicitly misleading about any connection to the company that owns Dr. Seuss rights.

Now on summary judgment for copyright claims the judge decided that Oh, the Places You’ll Boldly Read the rest

Los Angeles – The U.S. Supreme Court recently made an important copyright decision in the case Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corporation v. Wall-Street.com. In the decision, the Supreme court made a unanimous decision that a copyright registration from the U.S. Copyright Office is now required before filing a copyright infringement lawsuit.

There has been a long time circuit court split on the issue. While some circuit courts required only that a copyright application be filed prior to filing a copyright lawsuit, others required a registration. The process from the filing of a copyright application to the registration of the work can t Read the rest

San Diego – Performers have been suing video game creators lately for copying dance moves. Among them are rapper 2 Milly and Alfonso Ribeiro, the actor who played Carlton on the popular show “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”. In unison with the lawsuit, Ribeiro filed a copyright application for the Carlton Dance made popular on the TV show. The United States Copyright Office has now responded by denying the application.

Alfonso Ribeiro is claiming that Fortnite maker Epic Games committed copyright infringement by making his exact dance available in the video game. In preparation for the lawsuit, Ribeiro has submitted three applicati Read the rest

Orange County – In Europe, McDonald’s has held the trademark for the term “BIG MAC” since 1998. However, the trademark was recently lost after the European Union Intellectual Property Office’s (EUIPO) decision to revoke the trademark in response to a cancellation filed by an Irish fast-food chain called Supermac’s.

History of the Big Mac

The Big Mac is the invention of Jim Deligatti, who owned a McDonald’s franchise in Pittsburgh. The sandwich debuted in 1967, and despite its decidedly un-catchy original names, such as “Blue Ribbon Burger” and “Aristocrat,” it became popular on the strengt Read the rest