A friend of mine who crafts the most excellent blog,
La Gazzetta Della Bici (if you aren't a reader, you owe it to yourself to check it out) has recently been contacted by the legal representation of one Lance Armstrong... Why would that happen. you ask? Well, the author of the aforementioned blog's name is Simon Lamb and he and some of his friends coined the term "LAMBSTRONG" as a parody of the ubiquitous LIVESTRONG brand. Check out the story
here.
This is a great reminder that, no matter how rich and famous you are, you shouldn't take yourself too seriously. It's not like people are getting confused about which ____Strong is the cancer foundation and which is a joke.
Now all we need are some LAMBSTRONG rubber bracelets....
Thanks for the support. Check out www.rubberjohnnys.com for Lambstrong rubber bracelets coming soon as quickly as I can get them past legal. Levi loves them by the way.
ReplyDeleteSimon
LiveStrong is a registered international trademark. They are in violation of Intellectual Property laws by replicating the mark and trying to profit from it. And no, I'm not related to Lance or LiveStrong. Just work in Intellectual Property.
ReplyDeleteAnon -
ReplyDeleteI get it. It's a registered TM. Just not sure the "profit" that is coming out of a one-off T-shirt...
Parody is clearly protected speech in the U.S. There is no infringement case in U.S.
ReplyDeleteI doubt you work in IP, law or otherwise. Pharmstrong's legal gorillas are simply trying to make it expensive for Simon, that is highly different than making a legal argument. There will be no shortage of people willing to work for Simon for free, in the U.S. or otherwise.
The logo on the LambStrong t-shirt is deceptively similar to that of the LiveStrong mark, therein lies the issue.
ReplyDeleteInteresting article, added his blog to Favorites
ReplyDelete