fatactress.com

[dtobias]

This case found common-law trademark rights to exist in the title of an upcoming TV series which hasn't even aired yet, and in fact the sufficient "secondary meaning" existed as of the time of domain registration which was one day after the first public announcement was made of the upcoming show, on the grounds that a celebrity (Kirstie Alley) was involved and hence anything celebrities say and do is of so much interest to the public that it creates secondary meaning in a trademark sense immediately. This is one of those cases where celebrities seem to have inherently greater rights than commoners, and seems to be a pretty big stretch of trademark law.

 

[actnow]

This is an example where money and influence moved the scale of justice.

And, this is confirmed by this one statement by the WIPO Panelist

"However, the present situation is far different and thus clearly justifies an exception."

I believe if he had a trademark lawyer he might have won the case. Or, in other words,
the production company would have lost the case.

Unfortunately, now a company can create a press release (factual or not) and say
henceforth they have common law trademark rights. And, they can cite this case as an precedent.

Moreover, once an idea or intentions of a business project is announced to that particular industry. That said company has implied exclusive rights to the name.

In reality, I'm sure he reacted to the press release. But, wasn't the production company negligent in releasing the show's name without beforehand registering the
domain name and initiating a TM filing? (In the corporate world, it is S-O-P to due the
standard due diligence before leaking any information on a future project.)

Dan, are there a number of rulings similar to this one?

 

[Dave Zan]

actnow, remember that the respondent didn't respond to the challenge. If so,
who knows, the outcome might have changed.

Unfortunately it isn't uncommon that a respondent wouldn't know how to do
so, especially if they can't afford legal services dealing with this matter.

 

[Theo]

I hereby announce that sometime - in the unseen future - I plan to launch a TV documentary called "Lazy Ass".

For that purpose, I have conveniently registered one of the TLDs.

Now I can go to sleep dreaming about the $$$$