GossIP is a brief summary of a few recent legal developments in the IP, Technology and Media space.
HWL Ebsworth successfully represents Thunder Road in craft beer trade mark dispute
A team from HWL Ebsworth has been successful in defending claims brought by Stone & Wood against Elixir who owns the Thunder Road beer brand. Stone & Wood, who refers to its best-selling signature beer as “Pacific Ale”, alleged that Thunder Road engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct, passing off and trade mark infringement by using the terms “Pacific Ale” and “Pacific” for their craft beers. Images of the respective beer bottles and Stone & Wood’s registered trade mark are below (image source: Judgment [2016] FCA 820):
The court dismissed Stone & Wood’s claims. In his reasons Judge Moshinsky said “I do not think the adoption of the name ‘Pacific Ale’ or ‘Pacific’ conveys an association or connection between the Thunder Road products. On the one hand, and Stone & Wood or Stone & Wood Pacific Ale, on the other.” He also said that the trade mark was “not deceptively similar” to Thunder Road’s products.
Thunder Road was also successful in its cross-claim. Judge Moshinsky determined that Stone & Wood’s failure to include trade mark infringement in its initial Statement of Claim meant its original letter of demand constituted a groundless threat of legal proceedings.
HWL Ebsworth’s Victorian team of Evan Stents (Partner), Gina Tresidder (Special Counsel), Daniele Solomon (Special Counsel) and Scott La Rocca (Senior Associate) represented Thunder Road in the proceedings.
Led Zeppelin copyright case – a verdict is reached
In our last newsletter we mentioned the US court case where Led Zeppelin band members were facing court over accusations that they stole the riff from the famous “Stairway to Heaven” song from a 1967 track called “Taurus” by Spirit.
A jury has decided that Led Zeppelin did not copy the opening chords of Stairway to Heaven from Spirit and that the song “was not intrinsically similar” to Stairway’s opening chords. During the trial, Led Zeppelin’s lawyers argued that the chord progression was very common and had been used for hundreds of years.
#Olympic hastags, trade marks and licensing
Some companies and their associated brands have come under fire for using trade marked hashtags on social media during the Rio Olympics. Whether knowingly or unknowingly, companies are uploading photos on platforms such as Instagram using hashtag phrases such as #olympian or #olympic which have been trade marked by the United States Olympic Committee. According to the USOC’s website “the USOC owns federal trade mark registrations of word marks including, but not limited to”:
- OLYMPIC
- OLYMPIAN
- TEAM USA
- FUTURE OLYMPIAN
- GATEWAY TO GOLD
- GO FOR THE GOLD
- GOING FOR THE GOLD
- LET THE GAMES BEGIN
- PARALYMPIC
- PAN AM GAMES
- OLYMPIAD, PARALYMPIAD, PAN-AMERICAN, or any combination of those words
- ROAD TO RIO, ROAD TO PYEONGCHANG, ROAD TO TOKYO etc.
- RIO 2016, PYEONGCHANG 2018, Tokyo 2020
The USOC have registered the word marks only in the US, but that may have implications for companies wanting to use those marks when promoting their products, particularly on borderless social media.
In Australia, Olympic insignia are protected under the Olympic Insignia Protection Act 1987. The Australian Olympic Committee has licensing arrangements in place with certain companies such as Coca-Cola. The AOC has published guidelines on their website as to licensing and use of insignia. Click here to view the guidelines.