Latest Mass Copyright Infringement Suit Involves Paris Hilton's Sex Tape

from the who-owns-the-copyright-now? dept

In the past year or so, it seems that the porn industry has really jumped on board the train of supporting the mass "pay up or we'll sue" copyright infringement shakedown efforts. While some folks have been paying up to avoid a lawsuit, the actual court cases haven't been particularly successful so far. However, it's interesting to see that the latest "film" being used in one of these programs is the famed Paris Hilton sex tape, "One Night in Paris," that came out in 2003 and is a big part of what catapulted Hilton to her current level of fame. Of course, when it came out there were a few legal fights over who actually owned the rights to the film. Those legal fights have been settled for now, with both of the "participants" in the video apparently earning a cut of any revenue. Of course, given how much the free distribution of this video helped increase Ms. Hilton's value and bank account, it's a little silly to see folks now suing over it. I imagine that, like the other similar cases, those bringing the lawsuit will find that it's not that easy to succeed in court. But I'm sure plenty of people will still just pay up, rather than risk having to go to court to explain their porn downloading habits.

Filed Under: copyright, paris hilton, pre-settlement, sex tape

Patent Lawsuit Fight Over Who Has The Right To Sell Paris Hilton Hair Extensions

from the kill-me-now dept

You know what we haven't seen much lately? Patent lawsuits that are hot -- to use Paris Hilton's favorite phrase. Well, Hilton, herself, may end up getting involved in this lawsuit pointed out by Eriq Gardner over at THREsq. Apparently a company called Celebrity Signatures Int'l went out and patented (7,735,495) a way of making hair extensions, and has built a business selling hair extensions of the rich and famous. I'm not kidding. If you want your hair to look like Raquel Welch or Jessica Simpson, that's the place to go apparently -- and, that's the only place they want you to go because (remember) they've got the patent.

So, when another firm came along, named HairTech Int'l, and started selling hair extensions to make your hair look like Paris Hilton's, Celebrity Signatures got angry and threatened to sue. After being told that HairTech was no longer making the product, it backed off, but upon learning that the Paris Hilton extensions were back on the market, it called up the patent attorneys and filed a lawsuit. Beyond just straight patent infringement, the company is also jumping on the patent marking bandwagon, and claiming that HairTech is falsely claiming that its product is "patent pending," when that's not true. Of course, it could be that HairTech has applied for its own (equally ridiculous) patent on celebrity hair extensions, and the application just hasn't been published yet, so it's not clear how Celebrity Signatures knows for certain that there's no patent application here.

Either way, the whole thing seems a bit silly. And, as Gardner notes towards the end of his writeup, it seems like there may also be some potential publicity or "misappropriation of likeness" claims that could get Hilton involved. She has apparently licensed the right to sell such hair extensions to HairTech, so even if Celebrity Signatures prevails, it's not like it can easily go out and sell Paris Hilton hair extensions. Though, frankly, perhaps that's not such a bad thing. Either way, as Gardner jokingly points out, both companies product lines are built off of "knocking off" celebrities, so perhaps they shouldn't be so quick for someone else supposedly "knocking off" their own "knock off" designs.

Filed Under: hair extensions, paris hilton, patents
Companies: celebrity signatures, hairtech