So let’s say you were browsing through podcasts and see one named This American Whore done by a prostitute in San Francisco…
\nhttp:\/\/www.thisamericanwhore.com\/<\/p>\n
Apparently, lawyers for WBEZ-AM in Chicago think you’ll confuse that with This American Life, the syndicated program they produce that does a profile of one interesting person a week.<\/p>\n
There are three active trademarks owned by Ira Glass and\/or WBEZ – one is for radio show, one is for Radio show or TV show, and one is for Movies. Unless you make a claim that podcast is radio, the trademarks don’t cover podcast. I could create a comic strip called “This American Life” and the owner trying to sue me would fail because their trademark doesn’t cover comics in a newspaper – and you must actually use the trademark in a way that you claim – Ira Glass can’t prevent a comic strip called This American Life unless he actually has one and uses it in commerce – let alone one that share the first two words. Fox Television can’t claim that the Fox River Casino is infringing on them – Fox is a generic word and a casino is not a TV station.<\/p>\n
But this is a novel legal action based on the theory that it is designed to cause brand confusion. This is like Red Lobster suing someone creating a line of clothing called the Orange Lobster, or KFC suing someone creating Kentucky Baked Ham. The lawyers figure the whore probably lacks the money to fight them. [Insert obvious lawyer joke here]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So let’s say you were browsing through podcasts and see one named This American Whore done by a prostitute in San Francisco… http:\/\/www.thisamericanwhore.com\/ Apparently, lawyers for WBEZ-AM in Chicago think you’ll confuse that with This American Life, the syndicated program … Continue reading