Uber, Inc. vs Uber Technologies, Inc. / The “Dark Horse” saga continues / Warner Bros sues the manager of Harry Potter clubs

Good morning everyone. We hope everyone is safe and staying home to help #FlattenTheCurve. Here we bring you this week’s IP news.

Uber, Inc. vs Uber Technologies, Inc.

Uber, Inc. is a New York Design firm that received a notification from the US trade mark Office back in September last year, informing them that their trade mark registration could actually be rejected due to the likelihood of confusion with a new division of the well-known ride-sharing company “Uber Design”. Now, the design firm has taken action filing a suit since this new branch applies to classes that are now directly competing with the design firm’s own services and trade mark. According to the complaint, consumers, and even Uber Technologies, Inc.’s own employees, have confused Uber, Inc. for the ride-sharing company. Uber, Inc. seeks damages and for the ride-sharing company to address and correct the confusion through a campaign.

The “Dark Horse” saga continues

Back in summer, Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” was considered infringing and, even more recently, we reported on a little incident involving a fellow musician and his YouTube video in support of Katy Perry. Well, Katy Perry has won the appeal after the District Judge ruled that none of the individual elements of “Joyful Noise” ostinato are independently protectable under copyright law, nor is the specific combination of them in a song. If there is no copyright, there is no infringement.

Warner Bros sues the manager of Harry Potter clubs

Random Tuesday Inc. is a California based, non-profit organization that operates a Harry Potter running club (amongst others). As such, the company organizes virtual running races, collecting fees in exchange of providing medals and other merchandise that displays the famous “HP” marks (the merchandise is also up for sale).

Initially, called the “Hogwarts Running Club” it was later renamed “Potterhead Running Club” to avoid trouble. However, this was not enough for Warner, since the club branding and the merchandise sold on the website is “highly” inspired by HP names such as “Gryffinroar,” “Huffletuff,” “Slytherwin,” and “Ravenclawesome”.

Because of all the above, Warner Bros considers that Random Tuesday has and continues to infringe Warner Bros.’ copyrights in the Harry Potter films. After trying to reach a solution outside of courts without being able to, Warner is now filing for: copyright infringement, trademark infringement, trademark dilution, false advertising, and unfair competition, among other things. Warner Bros, therefore, requests all infringing activity to stop and asking for damages.

“Enemies of the heir… beware”

“Endless Summer” vs. Nike in trade mark infringement

Bruce Brown is the filmmaker behind the 1966 film “The Endless Summer”. This is the poster of this famous movie:

Now, this is Nike’s “Endless Summer” (2019) posters and social media campaign image:

Bruce Brown Films (the company in charge of managing all intellectual property of the film) filed a suit against Nike in the US, accusing Nike of trade mark infringement. Despite the “cease and desist” letter sent by the legal representatives of Bruce Brown, Nike went along with its campaign and kept using the allegedly infringing material.

What do you think?

This is all for today! We hope you will have a nice end of the week.