We received
this article from producer Ted Hope today, and it contains some troubling information.
Written by attorneys Edward C. Greenberg and Erica Galinski of Greenberg & Reicher, LLP, the article concerns a new bill, known as "HR 683 - the Trademark Dilution Revision Act", which just passed the House of Representatives.
If passed into law the bill "will serve to eliminate the current protection for non-commercial speech currently contained in the Lanham Act. It will prevent businesses (artists)and consumers from invoking famous trademarks to explain or illustrate their discussion of public issues.For example, using the phrase 'Where's the Beef' could be actionable. Although you might use it in a non-commercial way, the (very) famous Wendy's slogan when used to comment might not be protected by the fair use exception."
Given the increasing number of delivery issues that has held up the distribution of indies recently (Anthony Kaufman talks about two of them in the new issue of
Filmmaker), this bill is bound to cause a stir in the production community, so check back in for updates.
Also, article contains links for how you can get in touch with Senator Arlen Specter, who has been a strong supporter of the bill.
# posted by Matthew Ross @ 2/03/2006 11:29:00 AM
Comments (1)
This is just getting ridiculous. If a company is going to inundate the public consciousness with an inane marketing phrase such as "Where's the beef?" then they need to shut up when the phrase is used by the public, including filmmakers.
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posted by Josh Boelter @ 2/03/2006 3:08 PM
