Hypocrites for Community Values Lose Round One

Citizens for Community Values is a hyper-right wing group of busybodies who are essentially the seeds of an American style Taliban who operate out of Cincinnati. The First Amendment be damned, they tirelessly work to try to decide what kind of entertainment that you and I can enjoy, or not enjoy. CCV’s lack of respect for the First Amendment reached new heights recently as it tried to shut down a competing political action committee by mis-using trademark law. The Northern District of Ohio gave them a setback in a recent decision.

Barbie v. China Barbie Update

Regarding this earlier post on the Mattel v. China Barbie case.

Fox just had China Barbie on to discuss the dispute with Mattel. They treated her as if she were being prosecuted for providing harmful material to minors.

Interesting note. She said that prior to this lawsuit, she was getting about 100 hits a day. Now she gets about 100,000 hits a day. The Fox analyst interpreted that as meaning that she was profiting from the name “Barbie.” It seems more like she is profiting from the publicity that Mattel shined upon her.

Barbie® v. China Barbie

Note, to kink to this post, use this link: http://tinyurl.com/22vd8u. It seems that the use of the “®” in the title messes up the permalink for some browsers.

Perhaps inspired by Nautica’s® attempt to stop Nautica Thorn from registering her name as a trademark, Mattel, manufacturer of the Barbie® doll, just fired a shot across the bow of adult entertainer, China Barbie(NSFW). (source).

The lawsuit said Global China Networks used a domain name containing the word “barbie” in a “bad faith attempt to profit from Mattel’s Barbie® trademarks” and had damaged Mattel’s good name.

The lawsuit asked the court to order the transfer of the domain name registration to Mattel, to award damages of up to $100,000 and to order that any profits Global China Networks achieved be given to Mattel.
…
According to the lawsuit, the offending Web site is registered to Global China Networks LLC and is operated by Terri Gibson, a Hollywood, Fla., resident. (source)

Nautica® v. Nautica Thorn

The adoption of a nom de plume is a time-honored tradition. Francois Marie Arouet became Voltaire, Samuel Clemens became Mark Twain, Theodore Geisel is known to us all as Dr. Seuss.

Movie actors ran with this tradition from the earliest time that celluloid fell to a cutting room floor. Moses Horwitz, Louis Feinberg, Jerome Horwitz, and/or Samuel Horwitz, couldn’t get a reservation at Denny’s. Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard and/or Shemp Howard, on the other hand, would soitanly be seated, reservations or not — and certainly somewhere better than the big D. Ramón Gerard Antonio Estévez, Carlos Irwin Estevez, went with Martin and Charlie Sheen. (Charlie’s younger brother Emilio seems to have a little more Latino pride).

Actors and actresses choose screen names for any number of reasons, but Wikipedia says, “The Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) advises performers to select a name that is easy for others to pronounce, spell and remember. (source)”

Ms. Tokumi, for whatever reason, upon her entrée into adult entertainment chose to reinvent herself as “Nautica Thorn.” This is more original than most exotic dancers’ stage names, and she has never, to the best of my knowledge, claimed that she is “just doing this until she finishes nursing school.” (FN1) (By the way, her favorite foods are sushi, steak, pasta, spam musubi, and ketchup. (source).

The Fuck Brief

Here it is, the Infamous Fuck Brief. The filings are all public record and are freely available on the USPTO website. Nevertheless, anyone’s convenience, here they are.

1. The USPTO’s initial rejection of the application.
2. The initial appeal to the Examiner - this is the one that sparked the articles.
3. The USPTO’s second refusal.
4. The appeal to the TTAB - Not as fun to read as the appeal to the Examiner, but this is our brief of legal arguments for the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.

Some nice ink on this case

1. Orlando Weekly article
2. XBiz Article.

For an interesting read on the use of Fuck, check out this Sexual Intelligence Blog entry.

Unintended Uses, another Sex Toy Trademark Case

Who knew that the British were so innovative. A few weeks ago, we had the iGasm story where annsummers.com, an online sex shop in the UK was selling a vibrating iPod attachment. Apple’s Imperial trademark lawyers were not amused.

Now, Love Honey, another crafty UK manufacturer of sexual accoutrements has developed a vibrator attachment for an Oral B electric toothbrush. The current ad is here, but the much more interesting story is here.

I don’t know much about UK trademark law, but this suggests that there is a strong distinction between UK trademark fair use and our version.

Kink.com Appeals USPTO Refusal to Register “Immoral and Scandalous” Trademarks

Orlando Weekly published an article chronicling Kink.com’s attempts to secure registration of several of its trademarks, such as fuckingmachines and whippedass.

Trademark registration is a standard practice for any business that wants to protect its interests. However, Kink.com and others who have attempted register trademarks that contain a “dirty word” have been told by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) that “Registration is refused because the proposed mark consists of or comprises immoral or scandalous matter.”

Kink.com is appealing the board’s rejections, claiming that they are unconstitutional and unsupported by the evidence provided by the government. Kink is determined to prove to the Courts and Trademark Office that while “fuck” might raise an eyebrow in polite conversation, in modern times, “fuck” does not rise to the level of “scandalousness” claimed by the USPTO.

Under the legal standard, the mark itself must be “shocking,” and “calling out for condemnation.” Kink has argued through that this particular word’s prevalence in common conversation and popular culture discredits the argument that the American marketplace, and especially the adult internet marketplace, would be “shocked” by this registration. The previous appeal for whippedass was successfully argued on similar grounds.

The iGasm gets Apple’s Panties in a Twist

Geez… and I thought Apple was the cool computer company….

The Mac Daily News reports that a sex shop in the UK is selling the iGasm, a little toy that attaches to the iPod and is intended to provide music-driven genital stimulation. Ann Summers, the retailer describes the iGasm as follows:

Load up your iPod with killa choons and take your appreciation of music to a whole new level. This genius little device hooks up to your iPod, MP3 player, laptop or CD player and vibrates in sync with the beat. Go at it hard and fast with a pounding drum and bass track or chill with the ambient classic. Just turn up the volume to increase the strength of the vibrations and believe us when we say that full whack is PHENOMENAL. And here’s a tip, you’ll make him the happiest man on the planet if you let him be DJ for the night.

The iPod attachment is displayed below:

Apparently, Apple is not disturbed by the name, nor by the fact that someone found a way to mate the iPod with a vibrator. However, the ad campaign for the iGasm is rubbing Apple’s lawyers the wrong way. Here is the ad that drew Apple’s ire:

Of course, this is all UK based, but when we threw the tea into Boston Harbor, we weren’t throwing their trademark law into the water along with their taxes. Nevertheless, I’ll just comment from a US perspective.

I can see Apple’s point. The silhouette and white cord has become a very distinctive source identifier for Apple’s products. On the other hand, there might be some interesting and creative fair use arguments.

One thing is for certain, with one “haughty” demand letter (as described on News of the World), I would imagine that Apple has just boosted sales of the iGasm to levels that Ann Summers never could have imagined.

Not Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita”

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Adult Video News and The Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports on the suit between International Media Films Inc. and Manhattan filmmaker Andrei Treivas Bregman. The complaint alleges trademark and copyright infringement for the X-rated films he made under his industry name, Michael Lucas. The lawsuit seeks to stop sales of the gay-themed adult films, “Michael Lucas’ La Dolce Vita” Parts 1 and 2. The judge in the case recently denied International’s request that he enjoin Lucas from distributing the film, citing “inexcusable delay” in waiting 5 months to seek the injunction.