It's entertainment law update episode 159 for July of 2023.
Music.
Hello, everybody and welcome to another episode of Entertainment Law update from Los Angeles, California. I am Gordon Firemark.
I'm Tamara Bennett.
Share our opinions, commentary, analysis, and and a little chit chat. How are you? What's new?
Camera. Oh, I am great. Thank you for.
Had some unexpected time out of the office to help my mom and I was thankful I could do that and I
Appreciate your patience as we reschedule and reschedule them. Yeah, I know, you know, it this is one of the the blessings of being in solo or small firm life.
That if you need to go attend to something you just go and you make it work. It is and you know in this
Obviously, we're both solo. I know we have attorneys who listen, who are with firms, who might be solo, big or small, whatever that practice is. Yeah. But you know what I love post pandemic?
Is the fact that,
To miles from my mother's very rural home. Yeah. Was a brand new co-working office space. Oh, perfect.
Yeah, it was great. 10 minute drive and I was right where I could,
You know, let's get some work done and peace and quiet. So,
Okay I didn't know about it so,
Hey.
Dawn. So, I apologize. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
The sun is powering our our AC most of the day so so,
But anyway, hey, speaking of travel, you mentioned that co-working space. Just AA little heads up, show note,
Entertainment law,
First or second week in November I'm sorry I don't have the dates in,
In Austin Texas it's going to be a lot of fun I'm part of the,
Planning committee programming committee so we have got a lot of diversity topic,
I attended obviously for years but we have some returning favorites.
Such a stand suture. I mean, what's a CLE without staying in as part of the program to give us a round up on cases and then.
Podcast and we've recorded live. Yeah. A couple of different times.
But super excited we're bringing in some some different attorneys and different maybe non attorney speakers that we've just never had on the program before so I think it's going to be lots of timely topics,
You know you obviously if you're a Texas lawyer you'll get your Texas CLE and then you can apply that if you're out of state so come join us,
For a really great entertainment and sports law,
2 day CLE and then on Wednesday is an afternoon of kind of basics 101,
Both sports and entertainment related. So make sure that we get a link in the show notes if you'd like to check that out. You'll go to,
Entertainment update. Com slash 159 which is this episode's number,
Registration for that program in the in the notes.
I'm looking forward to sharing my thoughts and and knowledge about the field of true crime podcasting and some of the legal issues and liabilities that come up in that arena. That'll be a lot of fun.
Yeah and I'm doing an additional topic.
I enjoy about my practices helping the family after their loved one has passed away. Yeah. So, myself and another attorney here in Dallas, Daniel White are going to be presenting on,
How to put together a plan and what to do when there isn't a plan,
Well, that's cool,
Podcast movement conference so that'll be fun if you can be in and around Denver and like to connect up reach out to me,
You know, sort of legal legals I view of the podcasting industry and,
Sounds good. Right.
To speed.
Or webinar style presentation. Yes, indeed.
Foreign trademark infringement under US law the the cases
Abatron Austria GMBH versus Hetronic International Inctronic,
manufacturers radio remote controls for construction equipment and it sells in services this equipment that has a distinctive yellow and black color scheme
To distinguish them from competitors in more than 45 different countries.
The marks on the products that issue in this lawsuit. Well, after reverse engineering those products, I bet Trump
Begin to sell heronic branded products that incorporated parts source from third parties.
Not arbitrary.
But related provisions under the lanimax section 11141 A,
Registered mark in connection with sales so on and so on and also the 11 25 A one which prohibits the use of incomers of a protected mark
Weather registered or not that is likely to cause confusion,
Abatron argue that hetronic saw an impermissible extra territorial application of the lanimac but the district court rejected that and jury awarded hetronic about 96 1 million dollars in damages.
Related to abatron's global employment of Hitronic's marks,
And then it went up on a peel. The 10th circuit narrowed that injunction to cover only certain countries that otherwise.
Extended to all of avatron's foreign and fringing conduct,
Character in magnitude that would give the US reasonably strong interest in ligation
So we move on to the Supreme Court,
Resolve a circuit split over whether or not the lanimax.
Extension of the word. Yes, you are.
Rule or you know construction rule against territory excuse me against extra territory,
Cut to the chase what did the supreme court,
Conclude.
Tory reality. There you go.
Only the claims were the infringing quote.
Use encommerce is domestic.
Opinion by justice lido
On June 29 of this year just as Jackson filed a concurring opinion.
And Barrett.
The court explained that this presumption against the extra territorial jurisdiction serves to avoid the internal discord that can result when US law is applied to conduct in foreign countries and reflects
Quote the common sense notion that congress generally let just lates with domestic concerns in mind
Alright. So, I guess it was just two two far field from what was happening in the US.
On domestic even though it was happening in a foreign territory. But so essentially we're saying foreign infringement.
Foreign lawsuit do it over there.
Seems pretty logical and for those of us that took civil procedure in those kinds of things, you know. But I mean it.
What have been nice if the supreme court had come down the other way?
Foreign and infringements that you know,
Do you have some impact on? Yeah. They have an impact on the business. Mm hmm.
But we haven't, you know, there are treaties that address some kinds of these issues about where you sue but for the most part, you know, we're going to,
Rely on cases like this and we have another one later in the rundown that we'll be talking about as well. The deals with it. Aware to Sue question,
In the international arena but let's get go ahead.
What's the proper forum or venue to file the lawsuit
Yeah, but you know, the problem is those tools, sometimes get it wrong. In fact, they sometimes make up stuff.
Ella Quint if we have to post,
That their new bing AI assisted search tool.
Scenario.
One of these people jeffrey battle is a veteran and a novelist,
Was convicted of trying to join the Taliban in around September 11 2001.
The veteran novelist professor is representing himself in court suing,
Microsoft the owners of The Bing search engine that implemented this tool because Bing is the only site where these two names have shown up conflated.
Each source sort of singularly but as of February of 2023 bing is using this AI tool that
Sort of dozen a glamoration of the results from across the web to summarize the answer to your question so instead of a list of links,
Yeah we had AA sort of narrative text explanation that,
Sort of about first off it talks about battle the aerospace professor is the president and CEO of,
Battle Enterprises and it goes on to talk about him being honorably discharged from
The Air Force and now he's in that junk professor. Has an NBA, an aviation, and then it goes on with the sentence that says, however, battle was sentenced 18 years in prison for pleading guilty after pleading guilty to.
Direct authorship is the position that battle the professor is taking.
And so that's what the case will probably be about,
Even though he has himself tried a number of times to get it taken down,
Doing its thing republishing. Hey, it's republishing it.
Complain. Yeah,
Causes of action but that happens when a non-lawyer represents themselves and what they're filing.
George washington university is now collecting a whole database on the I cases so we can keep up with it this one is on there as well as another one,
That was just recently filed in Georgia Walter's versus open AI. Right. Yeah. So George Walter is a radio host. I'm sorry,
Radio host Mark Walter sued open AI alleging
GBT posted false information for him. It was filed in state court and is being removed to the northern district of Georgia. So another one. With this defamation issue regarding content generated by AI.
We're going at least we said it in December, January, whenever we said what's going to be the forecast for this year and AI has not,
Disappointing. No it's not.
Thing that the Georgia views
George Washington is doing.
Profoundly useful as we go forward in this arena. Hi, dude. Because if you probably notice that
Many, many, many, many, many of the suits are actually coverment against the government for,
Not been the focus of what you and I are talking about because we're looking at it from the intellectual properties side of things. So, I just didn't realize there were that many AI lawsuits pending out there on other topics. Yeah.
Yeah.
Hey.
A health insurance company,
No human ever reviewed the denials of sir of coverage for,
Make a recent judgement about these things. So can't just be an algorithm or formula. Oh. So,
Matrix kind of story line.
Scanner slash,
Metal detectors. Oh,
So and I guess this is already technology that's been being used at a variety of sporting venues and there are some other high schools in our in the state that use it but I don't know how it works but it's scans them as they walk in and
Trigger something if they think there's all interesting.
But it's not strictly speaking in the middle detector. Interesting. It's not a medical detector. I I don't know how I don't know how it works as
You know, preparing dinner and watching the news, that's what was
Definitely sounds like the stuff of sci-fi movies. It does.
Are there any being made?
The writers guild strike which has been going on for a couple of months now.
And we got a bunch of different topics and issues in the in the strike that what we'll do is we'll take the actors first and then we'll sort of compare contrast with what
What the writers,
Concerns and allegations are largely similar for the most part but obviously, you know, anytime you have a strike base pay is going to be a subject of the negotiations, actors, and the extras have noticed that their base pay hasn't been keeping pace withinflation,
Salaries you know it's not really a salary job but they're noticing that hey they're it's getting harder to make a living,
Gone up and our pay hasn't.
The the contracts these days some some artists are saying are just worse terms than they were just of you know
10 years ago or 20 years ago.
Display a lot is that of self tape auditions you know this is something that was
Happening a little bit when there was inconvenient for people to travel or whatever before the pandemic but during pandemic it became,
A way of life fractures if you want to audition you weren't going to in be in a room with other people for lack of you know for concern of contagion and things and so they played ball with that but it meant that they were
Paying for equipment and backdrops and you know what it's
Cause this sort of a race to the top in terms of quality of the video it's not no longer you know just point yourself a camera yourself and and do it with the people of make a set and turn on lights and
You know, get someone else to read the other part with them and things like that. All of things which historically,
The producers and casting agents took care of you would show up read your do your part
And you know, with a partner whoever they provided.
It was okay. The actors were saying, we'll play ball. But now, you know, they didn't expect that to be permanent and so they're raising concerns and looking for, I don't know whether a little overcome.
You know, compensation or,
Probably just sort of a let's go back to the old casting in the room model which I think is more comfortable actors you know need that,
Energy of the other people and that kind of thing. Right.
So, I I'm just curious since my background is the music business in Europe, your background.
Sing it raw with a guitar and,
You know people are going to be able to hear how amazing that song is going to be but often.
Yeah, I mean, look, that is always going to be, you know, time marches on and progress happens and technology gets easier and the playing field is never truly leveled.
I I you know it's it's an app to comparison but I think that the actor is doing an audition which is you know a few minutes of of reading somebody else's script performing you know in hopes of getting the job,
I guess the demos in hopes of getting a record deal.
Hey if you're an artist or in hopes of getting the song placed with another artist so.
Literally a headshot. No, yeah, you'd send a headshot and resume and they,
And if they like your look they'd call you in and you would you would go into a room where they would provide someone to play the other,
And you would acted out in front of the the casting director often the film director would be there and often they would be running your camera
But the point being it's a camera in the back of the room on a tripod that they would have to refer to later,
Didn't have to do any other, you know, production work. Nowadays, they're spending hundreds of dollars on,
You know, lighting equipment and video equipment and who's got the better camera,
Yes you're right.
Nothing a demo they're making a,
You know, dwindling residuals for streaming. Yeah. Another major issue and again, I thought, oh, welcome to the music business.
Kimiko Glen posted a residual statement on TikTok representing she only received a
Parents for her working oranges the new black and and obviously there's many many more who will posting those as well thanks just the money's not there well but it's also not just that the money's not there because I think the money actually
Is there,
Streaming video film folks are not
Wanting to share the details about how many downloads or how many listens or reviews,
And so,
How do you calculate it and yeah I mean it's just it's not
Transparent.
Saying this is no longer on our service.
But then I'm like they have the ability to do that.
That that's exactly right. Now, again, once a little bit different because once it's been released,
They just might stop in the good old days of pressing of the record. Yeah. General rating anything new or they could potentially take it off of a streaming service but the,
Make money off of the streaming,
Hey, I was sad to see that the pink ladies has been pulled because one of my professors from undergrad his daughter was
Why is one of the peanuts? So, yeah, I don't know. That was made me sad to see that that's one of the,
That different from the historical traditional television business where a show would get cancelled and if it hadn't had enough episodes to find its self and syndication because they were just wasn't a business justification for continuing to, you know, to run the show.
It was gone,
And I don't see it as that different.
That's the prerogative of the content owner to stop,
Thing that we're hearing a lot about has to do with AI and and the AMPTP that's the producers,
Supposedly put forward a proposal that would allow,
Or a basically allow any producer to have it in their contracts that they were entitled to scam,
The likeness is of the person and in fact they put in this proposal that extras could enter into an agreement to scan themselves for the studio then would own,
And then that character or that actors performance becomes the training for an AI and,
And then that actor never works again.
And no residuals on that because it's a new performance. Yeah.
But it is a big concern and and you know if you don't have bargaining power in a negotiation and the studio says we're going to scan you when we own that scan we can do anything we want with it,
Then,
You know, how much are you going to turn down the job? You know, those that's the question. So,
Let's say,
Producers want freedom to do anything,
The studio executives who are making public statements that are a little bit of the moral internet let the meat cake kind of tone,
They're unrealistic they don't have a clear
Picture of what's going on. Meanwhile, some of these executives are making terms or hundreds of millions of dollars in salary per year and the actor who's, you know, looking at a $400 check for a day.
Tom Death so,
Persona.
Music.
So
If that is permanent, sure sounds like Johnny to me.
If you are,
The person being duplicated without your consent,
Strong concern, don't you think?
Recording one is the name image and likeness rights of Johnny cash and it should extend postimously that,
How do I know that isn't Johnny cash? Yeah, well.
I don't I don't know that in addition to the other issues related to his the sound recording copyright,
That's being used. Yeah. I I miss it. I don't know. Maybe all of this permission was secured.
Oh I'm just unaware of it. Yeah. Well no I think in in the instance of the recording you just heard which was made as a you know sort of,
Testament to what can be done. Apparently, the the creator of this is creating a lot of these sort of parody.
Good old fair use, you know, look at what's possible. Right now, that that's the criticism, the commentary, I guess. So, it's definitely a mashup, definitely transformation,
And maybe it is maybe there's going to argument that Johnny quote Johnny Cash singing,
That that is a comment on life. Yeah. The commentary. On the original.
Wow.
Industry as all, you know, the or the nature of,
Creative arguments could be made but I think that's a really timely example and especially with the Barbie movie out right now.
Been sucked in. I'm going. But what was this? James Royal Jones signed an agreement that Disney can replicate his Dorothy or
Voice. Well, yeah.
Famous voices I think it was that really,
I'll record a demo of you know whatever syllables you need me to say and then you'll have a librarian be able to use it I think his instance was only specific to that character for,
Cartoons.
Well, I was always a different actor in the suit. They would be able to recreate his voice for the purposes of,
Yeah, there was deaging of Harrison Ford for the latest Indiana Jones movie,
You know DH Leah,
The character alive long enough to finish this movie or,
The D aging to make it his you know,
When those images or that voice of.
In this arena,
Either one time or residuals or maybe forward and that's the difference.
Right? Yeah. Versus just to this general. Hey, we can do what we want to for a one time fee. Yeah.
Upfront pay is always been you know I was a concern but they also have concerns about the dwindling residuals for streaming,
You know, pieces of net profit or other about box office based calculations in many instances,
In streaming those things don't exist in the reporting isn't there so they want greater transparency on how many times a stream is watched and those kinds of things,
Initially when it came in it was AA concession,
Again you know they they could've gotten more just held out for much more upfront pay and
And said, okay, go ahead and do your thing. So, you know, it's green to accept residuals in the first place. Became AA thing.
Invisible if it even exists at all in in the streaming world so that's a concern,
Where you know AI is becoming pretty good at writing,
Capturing a voice of a particular.
Credits to the writers will be,
What did dissipated a bit?
The WGA wants to make sure there's enough people in the room, enough union worker, worker, enough jobs being provided,
Yeah, it's it's it's I think this is going to be a long one. We I think I said that one. They writers one out. It's going to be a long one. It's going to be a lot. The parties are far apart.
Obviously on foreign productions if they're not part of the WGA those international actors and workers can still keep working,
For for us as consumers we probably notice that
There's not been any promotion.
There are films on
Programming which is crazy that up in Heimer and Barbie you know it was the biggest box office weekend ever is that,
That's right.
Producers that sort of said, well, wait a minute, this strike is against these companies, the the bees producing companies, the truly independent companies shouldn't be prevented from using,
The union members services so the the he was the actors guilt this sag after it made the deal to allow I think it was about 30,
Independent productions to proceed,
It's not that's not really applicable to the WGA. So.
Well, interestingly, I heard yesterday that the several of the sort of all-star jeopardy players that were scheduled to appear for a new,
You know, championship tournament kind of a thing on Jeopardy. They have,
While the writers strike is ongoing because even though it's an unscripted show,
Guild member writers so that they don't want to change
Interesting. Yeah. So, lot of solidarity out there. You know, I think we're we're in an era where there's a lot of labor unrest, another arenas too, but here in the entertainment industry, this is,
This is what we're looking at. So, yeah.
The ninth circuit is now affirmed the dismissal of a class action lawsuit against Instagram for allegedly allowing third parties to embed Instagram images on their own websites often times in the form of like a search result. So,
The night circuit took a look at this case and said that it was in fact bound by the perfect 10 ruling from a while back that established what's known as the server test under the server test the,
Instructions showing requiring the browser to show an image that's hosted somewhere else in this case on Instagram.
No direct infringement there can be no liability by Instagram for the secondary infringement and so at least in the ninth circuit the server test has been now applied to,
While I was unable to find the other case I was
Searching frantically for.
A circuit split regarding. Wasn't I think? Yeah, I think there was a second circuit case,
The same or very similar issue of embedding Instagram and I don't remember how it went,
Yeah what will have to kind of take a look at that because I think we have some maybe they're not at the circuit level maybe they're just district court. Yeah. That.
Made a different had a different holding so it might. Well, we'll see. See? Yeah.
I appreciate that Rick Allen has been keeping both of us I think updated yeah what's happening in North Carolina
Rick Allen is of course the the the named party in Allen versus Cooper the lawsuit against the state of,
I want to make sure I get it right. It's North Carolina.
That got all that footage of black beards flagship the Queen Anne's revenge and you may remember that he sued the state of North Carolina for infringing his copyrights in those,
In those films,
Passed a law saying it's called Blackbird's Law. And basically saying that hey if it if it
Exists on our territory on our coast.
That lawsuit went up to the Supreme Court and on the it was it was deemed that it was what preempted by this but no not preempted that the state law,
That was set up was carved out appropriately, right? Right, that's sovereign immunity applied. North Carolina was was sovereign and too bad so sad. They
You can quote infringe your copyright all day long so,
Rick has been keeping us informed with press releases and things,
And targets and harms an individual without any due process at all and since,
The governor of Edwell, the legislature in the governor have now repealed blackbird, blackbeard's law. So, that was unanimous legislative act and big victory frown and not a list but there are still,
Stuff going on.
Has caused basically. So, he says there's a double standard Allen and Nautilus' lawsuit continues to fight against that basically North Carolina are used that the state,
That it was an a prohibited taking of his property so that's still going on we're going to hold him accountable,
Right and that North Carolina could sue a party for infringing the copyright owned by the state of North Carolina but yet it did not allow,
For,
Individual entity or whoever to bring a suit against the state of North Carolina. So, big double standard, yeah.
Cuz it's the same thing a government entity can sue if they there are certain times in which a governmental team may own a copyright.
Yeah.
Then the government quote took it so then the government can because they weren't the original author and then sue for infringement,
Crazy.
Basically became, you know, tell me their notes. Hey, we're going to use it. What can you do? We're sabbling immunity.
On copyrights that the state does own yes they have the right to sue so that's sort of the
We're double standard but anyway that's right.
Government government can own a copyright on it. Although we've seen some rolling back of that as well with what was that the state of Georgia and that,
The reporting of,
Yeah. Where are they? The court said I know.
Concerning to see the light items into this.
Well,
Sure.
Dissolved as a man for a while haven't they but,
Created the illustration of.
Nirvana LLC.
That handles the licensing and sale of nirvana merchandise on and live nation merchandise also she's sued when she discovered that,
They were selling t-shirts, hoodies, key fobs, and mugs with that image,
I heard her father, grandfather, grandfather's image, a copyright. So,
The defendants came in to court and this was in Central District of California. She filed her suit. The defense said, hey,
This is not the right place. This case belongs in the UK. It's forum non-convenience,
Suggest that she doesn't have
And enforceable US copyright interest she doesn't alleged in any way how US cop parallel would protect the illustration as a foreign work,
When the illustration was first published in 1949 remember the US didn't join the burn convention until late 80s
1989. Yeah.
Us Law doesn't apply.
And she doesn't have valid claims here. So, it really belongs in the UK.
That the principal issue is the validity of her US copyright interest and that's why the UK doesn't really have jurisdiction over the case. Circuit Court said, well, that's not really that important but we're really looking at is is this the right forum,
And you know, looks at the
The historical test, the adequacy of the alternative form forum, and whether there's, you know, the difference given to the plaintiffs chosen forum and the third factor of the balance of private and public interests and they said, yeah.
The defendant is a manable to process in England and they offer a valid satisfactory remedy and in fact the defendants in in their motion papers actually conceded that they would accept,
And.
And I think part of it is also she's going to have to prove,
I eight it would be interesting to hear from if we have anybody who is involved in this that can talk
About it. You know, why the decision was made to sue in California versus the UK? I realized the defendants
Hey.
Contacts to to meet that requirement,
Also if they tour and sell merchandise in in the UK which they must because everybody agreed that that was an acceptable forum. Yeah. You know, why did
Did they think it was
More beneficial to see when the US versus suing in the UK. Wow. Well, that's interesting. I mean, you know, my first thought were a litigator would be,
Hey well first off my first question is
Is this an American lawyer that she that started this thing or did she have her UK council involved in you know and and maybe they made a
Conclusion that it was better to zoo in the US but more often I would think that if you just look and say okay where is Nirvana LLC located,
It's a it's California LLC so so I'm in California,
You know that seems to be there's obviously is what a water our keywords there's nexus there's a contacts there's all of that and if it's an L,
Okay we probably should sue them in federal court in California.
To say hey you you're in my don't come to my home the territory to sue me sue me in your home.
Yeah either she doesn't own it or or the rights don't
Yeah, who knows? Yeah. And and what I, you know, I don't know enough about the UK copyright law to know did it have a requirement?
Okay, we didn't, we, the US, and join the Burn Convention until,
89. I don't remember when the burn convention went into a fact.
So, if yeah, we don't know when the UK joined. Yeah. They burn convention existed. You know, so some of the things that,
Are real issues in the US for older works may not have been. I don't know. We'll see, we'll see where they get.
Where they go with that and on that note I was,
That was a copyright case
In
Country,
And they kept was it the license or the licency and who could bring the case in California folks I can't remember if any of our past contributors can remember what that case is,
Somebody let me know,
Did not resonate. It may not apply. Entertainment law update is brought to you by the sharpest legal mines in entertainment folks but this is an exception.
How many episodes we talked about that case,
The dispute has closed.
The the fat lady has sung.
So the the defendant in the case Mason Rothschild now has to send the court's order to the holders of all the NFTs,
And,
Closed and here we are.
Yeah, they're not allowed to sell the bag. The NFT. So, there's no existing market for these,
Yeah I I think that'll be the next one. And and on a topic that just keeps giving back to us. Love it. After year.
It used to just be every 4 years now since the political cycle freaking never ends.
The I'm assuming we're meeting DeSantis as in the governor. Florida Governor Presidential Canada on DeSantis.
Kicks off, copyright infringement in his campaign.
I can't even think of all of the ones we've talked about. But anyway, it's a new group of,
Potential defendants. Yeah, well, Ben,
Planet in this situation. In this case.
And the others involved in the show are Sue are going after President
Presidential candidate Rhonda Sanders for his use of footage from Peaky Blinders in a,
A campaign ad that was sort of an anti LGBTQ message. They add uses scenes and images of murderous characters.
Portrait sort of heroically.
Brad Pitt from Troy Christian Baile American Psychos Jillian Murphy Murphy from Peaky Blinders and then it flashes to images of DeSantis with headlines of his radical anti LGBT plus legislation so,
Making him out to be some kind of a,
On behalf of the partners of PG Blinders Stephen Knights Lee Murphy Karen Mandabock Productions Tiger Aspect Productions and Banje Wrights we confirm the footage of Tommy Shelby's character used within the video postway,
Campaign was obtained without permission or official license.
And we do not support or endorse the narrative of the video's narrative and strongly disapprove of the use of the content in this matter. So, wagging their finger, I guess you could say.
The triple.
Hey, to be a copyright infringement lawsuit. And the defense is going to be fair use.
And we've seen a number of these that you know it could go either way while we,
You know, representing content creators think this should never be a fair use. I haven't seen this ad. Yeah.
There's always that risk. I mean, we had the case. We talked about
During one political cycle where it was the,
As anti-gay marriage. Right. And I think that one landed as a fair use because it was a commentary. Yeah. So,
And then the 2020 election cycle Eddie Grant did win against Trump for an unauthorized use of 40 seconds from the song Electric Ave so it has gone both ways but,
Yeah, in the political sphere, that fair used thing seems like a pretty strong defense.
The analysis of transformative shifts a little bit
Oh, hadn't thought about that. Maybe, well, so that'll be interesting if any of these go forward.
Let's see what happens and then vote,
That's being incorporated often times we have this issue come up with with like you said with the Eddie Grant with the music,
You know, music that's being played live at a campaign rally as long as the venue or the campaign has the appropriate public performance license.
They can play what they want to be no and again we we've heard over the years it doesn't mean that the artist don't step up and say,
We we don't support this candidate. They can and they will but there's not a whole lot they can do if the license is in place. Yeah, I mean until the,
Some of the footage with the sound or whatever shows up in an ad or something like that on other media.
Yeah, the the life, the live aspect of it is covered by those performing rights organization, licensed. That's right.
Discussed on a separate topic I texted or emailed about in the last few weeks the fact that the master recording is used doesn't matter because in the US there's no permission needed for non digital,
Public performance of a master,
So
Everywhere but New Jersey it's Taco Tuesday.
Taco Tuesday LeBron James kept telling us
Everybody should be able to have taco bell and taco Tuesday and and nail the fight is over. It is is taco Tuesday free.
For his
The title he gave this story in our rundown is the long national nightmare is over. Taco Tuesday is free to use. And that's almost true. So what's happened is that you know taco johns, the small restaurant,
I think in Iowa that had registered and owned the trademark for taco Tuesday,
Has caved in basically. They've decided in probably discretion being better part of Valor. Not to defend their the claim from Taco Bell.
They had of course, as you said, launch that campaign with LeBron James and and trying to freed the phrase Taco Bell for everybody to use.
Not to fender us it so hope and I think you're,
You know the case been dismissed against them or or is in the process.
Of the phrase taco Tuesday was not the only one that was also a bar called Gregory's in New Jersey
That had registered the trademark as well and the two the two trademark registrants had agreed to coexist,
So Gregory's is also named in the lawsuit. By Taco Bell and they have filed their answer and so at least for now, the lawsuit goes on,
Yeah and and also to say it doesn't mean that
Taco Tuesday is there's a free Ferrari no matter what product or service you're offering there are some valid existing registrations at the USPTO,
For taco Tuesday for things not related to restaurant services or food services then they were also the people who were just misinformed over the last few months. Mm hmm.
Who decided they'd follow variation on taco Tuesday and now they've just wasted their money. So,
Filing taco Tuesday night or something like that to help you get a registration it's not.
Well, I don't know. Do we have a TTA bee? We do not have a TTAB. Take a trademark troll on a pills board rulings saying,
Taco Tuesday is generic correct because we just have a settlement. Right.
So, you know, I guess all beds are off at the trademark office. So, well, if Gregory's continues the fight,
Right yes,
Of course.
Alright. Well, I agreed and and Taco Tuesdays are a thing in my house. We always try to have at least Mexican food.
Flavors on our Tuesday night. So,
Are you in Texas let's text,
Every.
The fancy dancy California food that I have another name I call it,
Come to Texas. Let's have some text message. Sounds like a plan.
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