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The True Colors Of Trademark Law: Green-Lighting A Red Tide Of Anti Competition Blues, Ann Bartow
The True Colors Of Trademark Law: Green-Lighting A Red Tide Of Anti Competition Blues, Ann Bartow
Law Faculty Scholarship
The elevation of color to stand-alone trademark status illustrates the unbounded nature of trademarks within the judicial consciousness. The availability of color-alone marks also facilitates the commoditization of color in ways that complicate the development and distribution of products and services that use color for multiple purposes conterminously. The economic case for color-alone trademarks is severely undermined by careful observation of the ways that colors are actually deployed in commerce, which makes it clear that the trademarks of multiple goods and services can utilize the same color to telegraph the same message without confusing anyone or diluting the commercial power …
Copyright Preemption And The Right Of Publicity, Jennifer E. Rothman
Copyright Preemption And The Right Of Publicity, Jennifer E. Rothman
All Faculty Scholarship
This article addresses the conflict between an ever-expanding right of publicity and the federally guaranteed rights provided by copyright law. This conflict is highlighted in the Wendt v. Host International case in which the actors George Wendt and John Ratzenberger from Cheers used the right of publicity to prevent the show's creators from licensing the use of the Norm and Cliff characters in the decor of a chain of airport bars. Even though the licensing of the characters was explicitly allowed under copyright law, the Ninth Circuit held that the right of publicity prevented the creators from doing so. Similarly, …