IP News Round Up
It seems that there’s lots of juicy IP news to report to you, we’ve picked some of our favourites here:
Harry and Meghan trademark their items!
We’re pretty sure you will have heard by now that Prince Harry and Meghan have decided to take a step back from their royal duties but you may not know that the pair registered a trademark for their organisation last year; Sussex Royal the Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. This saw them separated from Prince William and Kate. It seems that their step back could have been a carefully thought out plan with them reportedly trademarking more than 100 items to their Sussex Royal brand more than six months ago. This includes pencils, socks and bookmarks which could possibly set them up to pursue new business opportunities in their new ‘financially independent life’. The registered trademark will allow Meghan and Harry to ‘take legal action’ against anyone who uses their brand without permission according to the UK’s government website.
You can read more about this here.
Celebrities go wild trying to trademark their lives:
Many celebrities file for trademarks each year to prevent others from making a profit from their ideas, phrases or names. Some of these strange examples are:
Taylor Swift trademarking her three cats’ names, Meredith, Olivia and Benjamin Swift. She also tried to trademark the lyrics from her song ‘This sick beat’ and ‘Nice to meet you. Where you been?’
Kim Kardashian controversially tried to trademark the name ‘Kimono’ for her new shapewear line but was greeted with much backlash for cultural appropriation after the name kimono was referenced to a traditional Japanese garment.
Cardi B filed a trademark for the word ‘okurrr’ and it’s misspelling. Many people felt she was not the rightful owner of the phrase and therefore her application was denied.
Kylie Jenner is trying to trademark the phrase ‘rise and shine’ after she went viral for singing to her daughter Stormi when she woke her.
You can read more about this here.
Dame Vera Lynn wins trademark battle:
Halewood International say that Vera Lynn is cockney rhyming slang for gin however, Dame Vera opposed their trademark and claimed it could be construed as her endorsing the product. She is a 102-year-old singer who is well-known for many reasons. It would be inevitable that the public would believe that she has endorsed the gin products. Fiona McBride, partner at Withers & Rogers said ‘she won the case to protect the use of her own name as a well-known singer and charity worker.’
You can read more about this here.
Fortnite lose copyright legal battle:
The video game Fortnite has become increasingly popular last year, it has in-game dances which are based on pop culture references and add an interesting twist to the game. Fortnite inventor Epic Games has been in a legal battle over the famous ‘Carlton Dance’ which premiered on the show ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’. The US Copyright Office said that the movements from the dance were too simple and therefore could not be protected by copyright.
You can read more about this here.
Music copyright lawsuits are worrying artists:
Chart-topping musicians such as Ed Sheeran and Katy Perry have been slapped with infringement lawsuits like never before. Sandy Wilbur; a forensic musicologist claims she’s received triple the number of requests from music companies to double-check songs before they are even considered for release. Copyright laws used to only protect lyrics and melodies but it seems that rhythm, tempo and even the general feel of a song are also eligible for protection. A jury in 2019 ruled that Katy Perry owed millions for copying the beat of her hit ‘Dark Horse’ from a little-known song by rapper Flame while Ed Sheeran settled an undisclosed amount of approximately £16m to Matt Cardle when he was accused of copying note for note of Matt’s song ‘Amazing’ in his song ‘Photograph’.
You can read more about this here.
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