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Activists May Use Their Targets' Trademarks

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the small-mercies dept.

lee1 writes "Sometimes political activists use a company's trademark as part of a campaign to embarrass it or call attention to an issue. And sometimes the company sues, claiming that they own the mark and its satirical use is prohibited. Now a Utah court has ruled that such suits must fail because the parodic use of the mark is not commercial and is a form of protected speech."

1 of 203 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Fair use by PRMan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    No, parody is. Satire would be Wayne Gretzky using a picture of Mickey Mouse to say that the New Jersey Devils are a "mickey-mouse" organization. Parody would be a comedy show using the New Jersey Devils logo in a comedy piece on the matter. Actually, they could probably get away with a picture of Mickey Mouse at that point as well.

    --
    Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...