by jburns | Mar 18, 2016 | Entertainment Law, Trademark Law
Twentieth Century Fox Television has prevailed in a lawsuit over its hit show “Empire.” The series, created by Lee Daniels and starring Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson, tells the fictional story of a feuding entertainment industry family and prominently features...
by jburns | Mar 2, 2016 | Entertainment Law, Trademark Law
The Kardshian family owns an empire built on a foundation of lifestyle brands and reality television shows, but can they stake their claim in their first names too? Kylie Jenner, the youngest of the Kardashian-Jenner clan, is certainly trying. In a trademark...
by jburns | Feb 22, 2016 | Fashion Law, Trademark Law
Back in October 2011, A Native American woman named Sarah Houston Brown confronted the CEO of Urban Outfitters regarding their use of the word “Navajo” in a myriad of the company’s products, finding them “beyond demeaning and inappropriate on a personal and collective...
by jburns | Feb 21, 2016 | Trademark Law
On this week’s episode of ‘The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,’ one scene in particular stuck with me. Lawyer Robert Shapiro (played by John Travolta) is craftily assembling Simpson’s “Dream Team” of defense attorneys. Shapiro recruits lawyer Alan...
by jburns | Feb 10, 2016 | Trademark Law
Viacom may have dipped its toes into the restaurant business before with the 1996 opening of Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. (named after a popular character from the film Forrest Gump)[1], but it has yet to chart the same course with a staple of the children’s series Spongebob...
by jburns | Nov 8, 2015 | Copyright, Entertainment Law, Labor and Employment, Trademark Law
Each time we turn a year older, our friends and relatives sing “Happy Birthday”. This song is part of the American birthday tradition for millions of people, but companies have paid licensing fees to Warner/Chappell Music Inc. for its use. Warner/Chappell Music...
