The Academy of Motion Pictures is suing a website called Oscarwatch.com. Fair use anybody? The site’s owner, Sasha Stone, has been doing his homework:
“I am not trying to exploit the Academy’s trademark to offer competing goods and services,” Oscarwatch.com’s Stone told [The Hollywood Reporter].
“Rather, I am offering commentary that directly addresses the Oscars awards, a topic of great interest to the general public, thanks largely to the efforts of the Academy itself. I believe that the use of (Oscarwatch) to describe commentary about the Oscars is that of fair use.”
I believe he’s right. But this may be one of those close cases in which the mark holder still has to act. And in California, the Academy’s chances aren’t terrible, because many of their judges are.
UPDATE: More of the same, and a case that Oscar Madison would certainly appreciate!
UPDATE: From the Citizen Media Law Project:
The parties settled soon after the lawsuit was filed, and Stone changed the name of his site to “Awards Daily” and his domain name to “http://www.awardsdaily.com.”
Originally posted 2010-03-23 15:38:08. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Yeah, unfortunately they didn’t just sue for likelihood of confusion because that would have been too fair. If I was a rich woman I’d counter-sue them. If I was a rich woman I’d fight this thing tooth and nail. Alas, I am not a rich woman in the monetary sense. I am a rich woman in many other senses and those are the things I choose to spend my time and money on.