Thursday, October 18, 2012
Sony Sues Actor For Trademark Infringement For Looking Too Much Like Himself In Another Commercial
Techdirt: Just when you thought trademark law couldn't get any stranger, we have a new story that takes it to a whole new level. Most often, trademark law is applied to logos and names of goods and services, yet there is still some untested ground. This is where Sony comes in. Several years ago, in an effort to rebrand its floundering Playstation 3 brand, Sony created a fictional Vice President of the Playstation brand named Kevin Butler. This character and the ads he starred in became a gaming sensation and brought the Playstation 3 back into the limelight. Here is a sample of these advertisements.
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7 comments:
This lawsuit seems a little absurd. In talking about unions in PPM we discussed buy-outs of actors for a period and contracts that dictate what you can and cannot do for years to come. If he had a contract with Sony that dictated no other gamining companies and no other similar commercials for x years, then after x years it should be perfectly fine. Bridgestone is clearly not a gaming company, nor are the characters supposed to be the same at all. The characters, especially engineers, are very come in commercials today. I dont think Sony should sue just cause they saw a silly Wii. He does need to keep a career, and he was following what was laid out in his contract. Dont sue him for being himself, hes just acting.
This case is a little bit ridiculous. First of all, we all know that trademark infringements do have a valid period, like 5 years or 7 years in China. You can't sue people for something happened 100 years ago...We don't know the specific time in this case, but it seems not short. second, i always think that actor is different in the field of trademark. say, they cant change their face and in most cases, their faces are their trademark. and is it a little subjective to sue someone just because you think he looks like someone else.....
Congratulations Simpson's jingle, you have been out shined by this ridiculous lawsuit. I'm making a mental note that Sony is crazy and is going so far as to practically blacklist a commercial actor. Who is going to want to work with him now? If they continue with this absurdity, no one will want to work with Sony and that actor will never be allowed to wear a suit and tie on a set again. No one can help it, there is a little paranoia going on here and I wish that they could just forget about it. That actor is going to move on and maybe he will always look like the head of the office and therefore always get that role, it happens...
All these lawsuits are getting a bit ridiculous. It is hard to ask an actor to never look like himself in another commercial. I understand that they don’t want this actor to endorse any of their competitors but he was not the commercial that he was in was for Bridgestone and there just happened to be a Wii in it. I think that they are getting a bit too touchy. This is one of those times when I feel that many people have gotten too eager to sue people.
This is straight up dumb. At this point it's time for copyright and trademark laws to be seriously reevaluated. This is absurd. People seem to be getting more and more daring with their accusations and this has passed the threshold of logic and reason and is entirely unfair. This should not make any legal sense and yet it can be somewhat supported. That's an issue.
This seems pretty absurd. Modern companies are to sue happy and they seem to always be looking for any reason to sue anyone so that they can either get more money or attempt to ruin a competitor company. Sony is trying to sue this actor for basically looking too much like himself. The "Kevin Butler" character is obviously going to closely resemble anything else the actor does because they're the same person! I don't see Sony getting very far with this lawsuit.
This is hilariously ridiculous, but at the same time Sony has some really good claims that, according to copyright law as currently written, should be ruled in their favor. The example of exclusivity is, if they can determine that Bridgestone is competing (a stretch) legitimate from a reasonable basis, at least. However the claim of trademark infringement on the character Kevin Butler is absolutely insane. That's like trademarking the old spice man and saying those actors could never work again in any role that they might be recognizable in. Sadly, current copyright law might very well say that Sony should WIN that argument- that's the ridiculous part. So it will be interesting to see how this develops.
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