Los Angeles – Eastland Music Group must have been extremely disappointing when it learned that Lionsgate, along with Summit Entertainment and Mandate Pictures, successfully defended the rights to use “50/50″ in the title of a film starring Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Eastland Music Group filed the lawsuit last year in Illinois, claiming that it had been using the words 50/50 in relation to entertainment services for over 12 years. Because of this long-term utilization of the trademark, Eastland argued that it had the rights to exclusive use of the trademark 50/50 in connection with entertainment services and products. According to court documents, Eastland claimed that Lionsgate, Summit and Mandate were harming recognition, confusing consumers, and damaging goodwill by making the critically acclaimed movie 50/50, and further damage would occur if the movie were released on DVD. The Illinois entertainment company asked the court for an injunction to stop the release of the DVD.
Fortunately for the makers of the award winning film, U.S. District Court Judge George Lindberg did not agree with the plaintiff’s assertions and accepted a motion to dismiss Eastland’s trademark infringement claims. In his decision, Judge Lindberg applied a standard industry test which dictates that a movie’s name must be explicitly misleading and devoid of artistic relevance in order to be considered a misleading title. In this instance, 50/50 referred to Gordon-Levitt’s character and his struggle to fight his fifty percent odds of surviving a rare form of spinal cancer. After watching the movie, Judge Lindberg determined that there was no possibility of confusion between the movie and Eastland’s music related use of the trademark 50/50. As such, the case has been dismissed against Lionsgate, Summit Entertainment and Mandate Pictures and the DVD will be released as planned.
Los Angeles – Imagine a world where legions of humans are inflicted with a terrible virus that turns them into flash-eating monsters. Zombie fans were given reason to rejoice when Paramount Pictures filed trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to register the enormously popular World War Z concept for use with video games. Evidently, gamers will be treated to games based on the wildly popular Zombie books by Max Brooks. Brooks’ original novel, The Zombie Survival Guide, was released in 2003 and quickly became a cult classic. The apocalyptic author’s second zombie novel, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, was released to critical acclaim in 2006 with movie rights quickly purchased in 2007.
Los Angeles – In a recent dispute over Google’s AdWord policy, the owners of Cybersitter are suing Google and Net Nanny for trademark infringement. Cybersitter, specializing in adult content blocking software, is alleging that its rival Net Nanny paid Google to show Net Nanny ads any time Google users conducted searches for “Cybersitter”. Cybersitter argues that the ad copy for Net Nanny sometimes included its name and slogan “Protect you child with #1 rated Cybersitter software”. According to paperwork filed in court, Cybersitter insists that this type of subterfuge on the part of Google amounts to trademark infringement.
Los Angeles – Athletic goods heavy weights Rawlings Sporting Goods and Wilson Sporting Goods are battling it out in a federal court over trademark infringement. The most recent competition between the two legendary sports equipment giants concerns the unauthorized use of Rawlings’ Gold Glove trademarks.
