Happy Halloween, LBers. Let’s finish up with one last holiday-themed post.
The company that owns the intellectual property rights to the 1990s television show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers has filed a lawsuit against a website that sells chintzy, Ranger-like costumes. The Hollywood Reporter has the story here, and we’ve embedded the complaint below.
If you’re not familiar with the show, it’s about a group of average teenagers who “morph” into superheroes to fight evil. Each Ranger wears a color-coded battle suit from which they take their name.
The lawsuit filed by SCG Power Rangers accuses the website operator, Underdog Endeavors, of trademark and copyright infringement. Since June 2011, SGC has sent the website, mypartyshirt.com, several cease and desist letters, the company said in the lawsuit.
An IP blog run by Milord & Associates in Los Angeles offered some analysis of the case (h/t ABA Journal). Here’s an except:
Are Halloween costumes copyrightable because they are garments, you ask? Although a broad category of creative works are eligible for copyright protection, the Copyright Act…excludes any “useful article” (e.g. clothing) — defined as “an article having an intrinsic utilitarian function that is not merely to portray the appearance of the article or to convey information” — from copyright protection. Thus although garments as a whole are not eligible for copyright protection, the individual design elements — for example a floral graphic applied to the fabric — may be copyrightable. In [Chosun Int’l Inc. v. Chrisha Creations Ltd.], the Second Circuit held that Halloween costumes may be copyrightable if the design elements are separable from the overall function of the costume as clothing.
No comments:
Post a Comment