2007-06-13

Fair Use

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Well, I have officially joined the Forces of Evil friends. You will be shocked and appalled to learn that I have, single-handedly, nearly destroyed Coca-Cola's global empire by infringing upon their trademark. Behold!

    Dear Shopkeeper,

    Thank you for using CafePress.com!

    In accordance with our Intellectual Property Rights Policy, Bradley A. Slutsky on behalf of The Coca-Cola Company, provided us with a notice stating that your use of the Coca-Cola trademarks, including those similar to "Enjoy Coca-Cola" and the "dynamic ribbon device" infringes upon their intellectual property rights (copyright/trademark). Please click here to for more information about intellectual property.

    Accordingly, we have set the content that is alleged to infringe the rights of the third party to “pending status” which disables said content from being displayed in your shop or purchased by the public. You may review the content set to pending status by logging into your CafePress.com account and clicking on the “Media Basket” link. The content set to pending status will be highlighted red.

    If you believe that you hold the rights to the content alleged to infringe the rights of the third party, we encourage you to contact the alleged rights holder directly for a resolution to this matter. Below please find the contact information for the party alleging infringement.

    Bradley A. Slutsky
    King & Spalding LLP
    1180 Peachtree Street, N.E.
    Atlanta, Georgia 30309-3521
    404.572.3536
    bslutsky@kslaw.com

    We apologize for any inconvenience that our actions may cause you. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

    Sincerely,

    Lindsay Estes
    Content Usage Associate

    (650) 655-3047 (O)
    (650) 240-0260 (F)

My flagrant violation of Holy Intellectual Property Rights?

These:
Thenjoy!Thenjoy!

I wish I had the time energy and money to make a big deal about this, because it's ridiculous and a completely winnable case. And by making a big deal about it, I could sell a lot more of these shirts than I have so far. (Which, for the record, is zero.) As it is, I will probably go ahead and start up a store with one of CafePress's competitors and sell it there. Just give me a couple weeks.

Coke's PR Efforts are AWESOME


NOTE: speaking of
big deals, if this
post is followed by
a bunch of silence,
it's probably not
Coke, but the birth
of our child keeping
me away from our
machine. All the same,
alert Homeland
Security. Thanks.
Thritten by at

16 comments:

  1. B.G. Christensen6/13/2007 1:00 PM

    I'd better be careful--the Fob logo is a lot like Coke's logo. You know, they both have letters and stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nemesis6/13/2007 1:10 PM

    So, so, so insane. So they're saying that they own curves, then?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous6/13/2007 1:35 PM

    Watch out, Nike.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kengo Biddles6/13/2007 1:58 PM

    Apparently they do. And watch out, because McDonald's owns the "Mc" so don't you dare even think of using it in your name.

    How retarded. I vote you get in on a class action against Coke for Psychotic Corporate Evilness. Or that you start one.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous6/13/2007 5:35 PM

    Curly font and a swash = Coca Cola logo? BUUUUULLLLLL SHIIIIIIIIIIT.

    Turns out Coca Cola WENT BACK IN TIME and invented calligraphy!

    -Redoubt

    ReplyDelete
  6. Th.6/13/2007 5:52 PM

    .

    Well, I redesigned the shirts so they can be sold. For now, anyway.

    You can see them at the Thtore (men's & women's).

    [edit: changed the links on the shirt images to their replacement shirts]

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yarjka6/13/2007 5:57 PM

    I love that the two random advertisements on the bottom left of your blog right now are for coke machines and for coke products.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Th.6/13/2007 5:59 PM

    .

    Yeah. I don't know if I should be glad or angry if I get money for people clicking on them. Am I shafting the man or sucked into fealty?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Christian6/13/2007 8:03 PM

    I will confess that I don't often stop into the Thtore.

    However.

    I totally just bought one of the new shirts. Because it TOTALLY. ROCKS.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Th.6/13/2007 10:54 PM

    .

    They love you too.

    And--Edgy friendly--they're fitted.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Th.6/13/2007 10:56 PM

    .

    Let's try those links again from here for the rest of you potential-shirt-buyers:

    M

    F

    ReplyDelete
  12. Cricket6/13/2007 11:52 PM

    Cafepres doesn't like you at all right now, I clicked on the Thtore and it won't open...

    Also WOW, that is completely messed up....

    ReplyDelete
  13. Samantha6/14/2007 7:07 AM

    The "mine, mine mine" coke logo (yes, I used lower case on purpose) is beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Katria6/14/2007 8:59 AM

    And this is why I don't like Coke. Other then the fact that it makes me feel ill, of course.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Lippy6/14/2007 9:29 AM

    I think they were objecting to your use of black lettering too. This is silly, when you think that someone, somewhere, gets paid to browse our cafeshops (fellow shopkeeper) to catch such egregious patent infringements!

    We should take the old "fight City Hall" routine, and scream that they're stomping on your inner creativity! But, you have baby stuff to worry about. Sorry that they had nothing better to do.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Cicada6/14/2007 11:26 AM

    I worked at Dairy Queen where it was drilled into my head that DQ owns the swirl on top of soft serve ice cream. So other soft serve ice creams cannot be served with a little swirl on top.

    Also, I have a McName. I better get married and change it before McDonalds comes after me.

    Anyway. I kindof never want to drink Coke again, and I am a Coke drinker.

    ReplyDelete

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