I know a few of you are sick of the kvetching about the stitch and bitch trademark fight, but I wanted to point the rest of you to this list of fun examples of Intellectual Property Run Amok that I found via Lawrence Lessig's blog.
HUEY NEWTON’S widow is trademarking the phrase “Burn, Baby, Burn” for use as a BBQ sauce slogan.FOR INCLUDING a 60-second piece of silence on their album, the Planets were threatened with a lawsuit by the estate of composer John Cage, which said they’d ripped off his silent work 4’33”. The Planets countered that the estate failed to specify which 60 of the 273 seconds in Cage’s piece had been pilfered.
THE PUBLISHER of Super Hero Happy Hour removed “Super” from the comic book title after Marvel and DC Comics stated they own the phrase “super heroes and variations thereof.”
Sew Fast Sew Easy's efforts to control all usage of the age old phrase stitch and bitch should make them a strong candidate for inclusion in this hall of lame.
Technorati tags: trademark stitch and bitch
Cool - Lawrence Lessig is becoming a pioneer in the field of copyright and file sharing/digital media.
Posted by: Melissa | March 19, 2006 at 18:52
You just reminded me that I have yet to post on my blog about the SnB thing. Thanks! I better start typing...
Posted by: Sachi | March 20, 2006 at 02:05
>HUEY NEWTON’S widow
I thought you said Huey Lewis at first, and I thought, "Hey, he's dead? I had no idea."
This totally random comment brought to you by the letter R.
Posted by: lyndsey | March 21, 2006 at 19:43