Wednesday, August 13, 2003

 

This whole Al Franken-Fox News dustup reminds me of Groucho Marx's response to Warner Bros.' threats to enjoin his movie, "A Night In Casablanca" because it incorporated the title to their Bogart-Bacall movie. Here's part of Groucho's letter:

http://www.chillingeffects.org/resource.cgi?ResourceID=31



You claim that you own Casablanca and that no one else can use that name without permission. What about ìWarner Brothersî? Do you own that too? You probably have the right to use the name Warner, but what about the name Brothers? Professionally, we were brothers long before you were. We were touring the sticks as the Marx Brothers when Vitaphone was still a gleam in the inventorís eye, and even before there had been other brothersóthe Smith Brothers; the Brothers Karamazov; Dan Brothers, an outfielder with Detroit; and ìBrother, Can You Spare a Dime?î (This was originally ìBrothers, Can You Spare a Dime?î but this was spreading a dime pretty thin, so they threw out one brother, gave all the money to the other one, and whittled it down to ìBrother, Can You Spare a Dime?î)



Sometimes utter ridicule can provide a pretty thorough legal defense to an ill-advised trademark infringement claim . . .

posted by Michael 7:00 AM