IPNews® – The Ninth Circuit ruled Thursday that Marilyn Monroe’s estate cannot claim a posthumous California state law right of publicity for the famed actress’s likeness.
The estate has argued for decades in various other proceedings that Monroe was living in New York when she died, not California, so New York law must govern based
IPNews® – A California federal judge on Tuesday dismissed Kim Kardashian’s right of publicity lawsuit against The Gap Inc. for allegedly using a Kardashian lookalike in an Old Navy television commercial.
Kardashian’s attorneys notified the court on Friday that the matter had been settled. The reality television star alleged in 2011 that the commercial starring
IPNews® – Filmmaker Sam Raimi’s Renaissance Pictures Ltd. won a permanent injunction last week barring a rival film production company from trading on the name of Raimi’s cult classic Evil Dead films.
The default judgment in California federal court last Friday shut down Award Pictures LLC’s stated plans to make unauthorized sequels to Raimi’s original
IPNews® – A federal judge on Thursday shot down Ashley Furniture Industries Inc.’s bid to defeat the estate of Humphrey Bogart’s claims that the furniture maker had violated the late actor’s trademark rights.
Ashley sold a line of furniture called “Bogart Ocean” without authorization from 2008 to 2009, according to the estate. The judge found
IPNews® – The maker of Thermador ovens preemptively sued the Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts on Friday, claiming its use of Child’s image in its promotional materials did not infringe any of the foundation’s copyrights or trademark rights.
The company, BSH Home Appliances Inc., alleges that the foundation sent it a
IPNews® – Starbucks and its Evolution Fresh subsidiary are facing a new trademark infringement suit filed by a San Diego vegan restaurant.
The restaurant, Evolution Fast Foods, claims Starbucks is planning to open a new chain of restaurants under the Evolution Fresh name that will violate its trademarks for the phrase “Evolution” in connection with
IPNews® – The Pittsburgh Steelers have amicably resolved their trademark infringement suit against a man accused of making foreign language knockoffs of the NFL team’s iconic Terrible Towel rally towels.
Nicholas Rossi was allegedly selling the knockoffs via eBay and the website of a Long Beach, California sporting goods store. The Terrible Towel trademarks are
IPNews® – MTV parent Viacom filed papers last week in opposition to the network’s “Jersey Shore” cast member Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino’s attempt to trademark his catchphrases “GTL” and “twinning” popularized on the show.
Viacom says it already owns trademarks for the phrases. Sorrentino also signed away his rights to any intellectual property created on
IPNews® – Lorillard announced last week that it was successful in its trademark infringement lawsuit against the makers of a synthetic cannabis product sold under the name Newprot.
The owners of the Newport trademark filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court against Majdi and Mohammad Adujamous, who own three Tobacco Zone stores in Richmond Virginia.
IPNews® – John Geils Jr. announced recently that he filed a complaint against his former band members for trademark infringement after they announced plans to tour without him.
The J. Geils band, named after John Geils, has been together since the 1960’s and rose to fame with such 1980’s hits as “Freeze Frame” and “Centerfold”.