3 ms·

I'm not a lawyer but I'm fairly certain this wouldn't be covered by fair use laws because the site is a commercial entity directly selling something with a trad

I'm not a lawyer but I'm fairly certain this wouldn't be covered by fair use laws because the site is a commercial entity directly selling something with a trademarked name for profit. I think you'd have a hard time arguing this one in court.

Dylan16807 5y ago
Trademarks are primarily about consumer confusion. Arguing that it's clearly not sanctioned by olive garden isn't that hard. And they're not competing with olive garden in any markets.
tgb 5y ago
Also not a lawyer but I think the problem here is that the thing being satirized (NFTs) is not Olive Garden and so they don't get protection from the olive garden copyright. Eg this satire of the OJ Simpson trial done in the style of Dr Seuss: https://www.imaginelaw.com/cat-in-the-hat-parody-infringes-on-seuss.html https://www.imaginelaw.com/cat-in-the-hat-parody-infringes-o...
- notfed 5y ago
  Hmm, valid analogy. Arguably they're satirizing Olive Garden as well, here, though? Alternatively, the creator could crank up their Olive Garden satire a little more to pass this test?
jeroenhd 5y ago
Does Olive Garden have a trademark in this domain? Trademarks are limited by the area they operate in, which is why you had Apple Music (the label) and Apple Computers side by side for years. Also see https://www.nissan.com/ https://www.nissan.com/, which Nissan (the car company) has had legal proceedings with for years, bullying a company that has the same name because they want their domain. So far, unsuccessfully. I don't know what class this falls under, but unless Olive Garden has a trademark in class 38 or class 42, I don't think trademarks will give them the legal ability to take the website down. What will help them take the website down is the ability to bully a small project into submission by filing all kinds of lawsuits to basically out-lawyer them. You can only get justice if you're rich, after all. I think a cease and desist will be quickly accepted to avoid the inevitable tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees for a full-on lawsuit.
- nl 5y ago
  They are claiming the NFT represents "An Olive Garden Franchise" and saying things like "While every Non-fungible Olive Garden is tethered to a real Olive Garden... " It's going to be pretty difficult to argue that their statement "granting owners no rights or privileges in meatspace Olive Gardens" is sufficient.
deleted 5y ago
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bliteben 5y ago
would be a great case about the legality of crowdsourced leveraged buyouts.

Dylan16807 5y ago

Trademarks are primarily about consumer confusion. Arguing that it's clearly not sanctioned by olive garden isn't that hard. And they're not competing with olive garden in any markets.

tgb 5y ago

Also not a lawyer but I think the problem here is that the thing being satirized (NFTs) is not Olive Garden and so they don't get protection from the olive garden copyright. Eg this satire of the OJ Simpson trial done in the style of Dr Seuss: https://www.imaginelaw.com/cat-in-the-hat-parody-infringes-on-seuss.html https://www.imaginelaw.com/cat-in-the-hat-parody-infringes-o...

notfed 5y ago
Hmm, valid analogy. Arguably they're satirizing Olive Garden as well, here, though? Alternatively, the creator could crank up their Olive Garden satire a little more to pass this test?

jeroenhd 5y ago

Does Olive Garden have a trademark in this domain? Trademarks are limited by the area they operate in, which is why you had Apple Music (the label) and Apple Computers side by side for years. Also see https://www.nissan.com/ https://www.nissan.com/, which Nissan (the car company) has had legal proceedings with for years, bullying a company that has the same name because they want their domain. So far, unsuccessfully. I don't know what class this falls under, but unless Olive Garden has a trademark in class 38 or class 42, I don't think trademarks will give them the legal ability to take the website down. What will help them take the website down is the ability to bully a small project into submission by filing all kinds of lawsuits to basically out-lawyer them. You can only get justice if you're rich, after all. I think a cease and desist will be quickly accepted to avoid the inevitable tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees for a full-on lawsuit.

nl 5y ago
They are claiming the NFT represents "An Olive Garden Franchise" and saying things like "While every Non-fungible Olive Garden is tethered to a real Olive Garden... " It's going to be pretty difficult to argue that their statement "granting owners no rights or privileges in meatspace Olive Gardens" is sufficient.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

bliteben 5y ago

would be a great case about the legality of crowdsourced leveraged buyouts.