Limitation on Color Trademarks in the Fashion Industry

In 1992, shoemaker Christian Louboutin began using red lacquer soles on some of its shoes.  In 2008, the red soles were registered as mark in the US Patent and Trademark Office, and on January 1, 2008, number 3, 361,597, the “red sole mark” came to life. In 2012 Louboutin sued Yves St. Laurent ("YSL").  They were seeing red  (pun intended) over the recent Yves St. Laurent 2011 Resort collection, which included red-soled shoes, the Louboutin signature brand detail.  Louboutin filed a trademark action against YSL, which YSL prominently countered with a counter-suit seeking cancellation of the Louboutin trademark registration.  Louboutin responded with a request for a  preliminary injunction temporarily preventing YSL from selling the shoes until the dispute was settled.  The district court initially denied Loboutin's request largely on the basis that . . ."in the fashion industry color serves ornamental and aesthetic functions vital to robust competition  . . . However, “Color alone “ sometimes ” may be protectable as a...
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Tattoo Copyrights

Tattoo Copyrights

Can I Copyright my Tattoo? A while back someone asked me about writing a blog post on copyright law and tattoos. After thinking about it, I realized that the issue is one that provides a great opportunity to illustrate (no pun intended) some core concepts about copyright law that are often misunderstood by the general public and sometimes by creatives. At issue is who owns the copyright in that tat on your forearm. After all, a tattoo is really no different than other creative work and as long as it is an “original work of authorship” (Most likely) and “fixed in a tangible form” (most defiantly), US law states that the subject matter is subject to copyright protection. A person who originally creates something generally has the exclusive right to control how that “expression” is used by others – they can give it away, sell it, or just prevent anyone else from using it. Tats are no different. When a tattoo artist...
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