Burlington Northern And Santa Fe Railway Says Artists Cannot Depict Their Trains
from the morons-in-a-hurry dept
Greg Beck of Public Citizen writes in to let us know about a case Public Citizen is involved in, concerning whether or not it's trademark infringement to make a painting of a train from the Burlington Norther and Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway. The details of the case are yet another example of a company trying to stretch the meaning of trademarks well away from its intended purpose (to protect consumers against confusion) and, instead, using it to try to stifle speech they don't like. In this case, a law firm that represents injured railroad workers commissioned a series of paintings of various trains, including BNSF trains. BNSF did not like this, and demanded that the paintings be taken down as they violate its trademark. Beck goes through all of the legal precedents and case law why there is no trademark infringement here at all, but I think it should serve as yet another case where the famed moron in a hurry trademark test should be used. Would a moron in a hurry see these paintings on a lawyer's website and somehow be confused that the site was somehow associated with BNSF? It seems unlikely, though for the sake of BSNF, perhaps we'll change the test this time around to "a moron trying to catch a train."Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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not a good analogy
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Freedom of expression?!?
Let's see, freedom of expression...
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If...
As it stands, it's stupid to try and get them taken down because the amount of negative publicity that this will and is gaining will outweigh the positive effect they achieve (which I still can't see).
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It's all about...
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http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/media/features/1463/
And in the field of trains, the TGV seems to have a similar status:
http://www.istockphoto.com/tutorial_copyright_list.php?Keyword=&CategoryID=&Sort= &page=10
So ... for right or wrong ... it seems like BNSF actually has grounds to stand on.
-Doug
http;//www.htcphones.info
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Re: how about the cost of tickets?
its like greyhound saying don't use us in films...this foolish stance is just a lonely bugle coming from railroad's selfcreated Little Big Horn
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Doug makes a point...
This is yet another example of why the USPTO and copyright offices need to be completely revamped immediately.
Of course it could be just as easy to say screw BNSF and start painting pics of maglev trains instead. They always say there's no such thing as bad publicity, so ignore them instead. When people stop paying any attention to them they'll either come around or be quickly forgotten.
That being said, I have some old toy trains for sale...I forget the name of them now...
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Patent-envy...
Maybe they should patent the look of their trains and pursue that route. Why not? You can patent anything that even resembles an idea.
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oh dear,...
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Precedent
As far as legal standing, I can't imagine anyone would be fuzzy on this point - art is protected speech. In fact, some companies even (gasp) recognize and embrace the benefit to the brand name that art can bring.
imagine that.
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Re: Precedent
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Re: Precedent
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