Fox Sues Agitproperties.com!
This one happened on 6/19.
Agitproperties makes the famous O'Reilly Youth T and the Faux News T.
"We Distort. You Comply" (Salon)
I wonder what happened to this one?
Quote:
If Fox does decide to defend its copyright against the likes of the O'Reilly youth T-shirt in court, could the network have a case? Although the T-shirt peddlers say that they're just trying to make enough money from the shirts to keep their tiny alternative media site up and running, could they be prosecuted for profiting from Fox's trademark?
"The question is not whether they're selling the shirts for profit or not," says Fred Von Lohmann, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "The real question is: Are people going to be confused? If you look at a T-shirt and it's clearly lampooning the trademark, no one is going to be confused. Then, the First Amendment gives you more protection.
"Trademark law is intended to protect the public from confusion," he says. "It's not intended to protect Bill O'Reilly from offensive comments about his program."
If Fox does decide to defend its copyright against the likes of the O'Reilly youth T-shirt in court, could the network have a case? Although the T-shirt peddlers say that they're just trying to make enough money from the shirts to keep their tiny alternative media site up and running, could they be prosecuted for profiting from Fox's trademark?
"The question is not whether they're selling the shirts for profit or not," says Fred Von Lohmann, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "The real question is: Are people going to be confused? If you look at a T-shirt and it's clearly lampooning the trademark, no one is going to be confused. Then, the First Amendment gives you more protection.
"Trademark law is intended to protect the public from confusion," he says. "It's not intended to protect Bill O'Reilly from offensive comments about his program."
Agitproperties makes the famous O'Reilly Youth T and the Faux News T.
"We Distort. You Comply" (Salon)
I wonder what happened to this one?
Comments
They are making satirical/critical/political statements about public figures and entertainment channels.
O'Reilly is a public political/entertainment figure... you can say almost anything about him on a T-shirt and probably get away with it.
Fox News can claim Faux News is a dilution of their trademark.. but I don't think a judge is going to believe that a Fox News fan would buy the t-shirt by mistake.
Originally posted by ShawnJ
This one happened on 6/19.
Agitproperties makes the famous O'Reilly Youth T and the Faux News T.
"We Distort. You Comply" (Salon)
I wonder what happened to this one?
I'm buying two t-shirts. The "Faux News: We Distort. You Comply." and the "O'Reilly Youth".
The funny thing is...I watch Fox News. Not exclusively of course. But, I do watch.
Originally posted by Northgate
I'm buying two t-shirts. The "Faux News: We Distort. You Comply." and the "O'Reilly Youth".
The funny thing is...I watch Fox News. Not exclusively of course. But, I do watch.
Aha! It looks like you can think for yourself.
Tell me, where you aware you were not buying officially sanctioned Fox News gear?
SDW, any comment?
Fox threatened to sue back in June. They sent a cease-and-desist letter...
I wonder if Fox is still waiting on this, or if it has been settled or what?
Originally posted by ShawnJ
Whoops.
Fox threatened to sue back in June. They sent a cease-and-desist letter...
I wonder if Fox is still waiting on this, or if it has been settled or what?
I just heard about this yesterday on O'Reilly's radio show. (Don't ask why I was listening to this, but it's a long, boring drive home from Atlanta and I'm a news radio junkie). Anyway, he said that the suit was thrown out by a judge, citing free speech. That solves that.
Anyway, it seemed to really bother O'Reilly because he made all kinds of excuses about why it was thrown out. His final excuse was that the judge was a Clinton apointee and was obviously wrong. He said that this judge was the same one who threw out the "Candyman" child porn case because of freedom of speech as well.
The gall of that guy, equating this parody with child porn. And I bet his listeners ATE IT UP.