I don't believe that Mr. Masnick (Mike) is over-reaching here.
At first blush, the court's decision seems to support the notion that Shepard Fairey's poster falls within "fair use."
Unfortunately, due to the publicity and exceptionalism surrounding the Fairey case, I don't foresee the Court disposing of the infringement claims as quickly and easily as the Judge did here.
I have to say that I agree with Tristan here... specifically, "the harder it is to get a trademark, patent, copyright, etc., the better off the whole system is."
The more rigorous a review is undertaken before IP rights are granted, the more valuable these rights actually are to rights holders. The amount of uncertainty, in terms of what action constitute infringement, is reduced because there will be a rigorous review should result in the clearer definition of the scope of such rights.
That being said, I believe that hotels.com, as a unitary mark, is arguably distinctive enough to warrant trademark protection.
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Re: Anonymous Crowd
I don't believe that Mr. Masnick (Mike) is over-reaching here.
At first blush, the court's decision seems to support the notion that Shepard Fairey's poster falls within "fair use."
Unfortunately, due to the publicity and exceptionalism surrounding the Fairey case, I don't foresee the Court disposing of the infringement claims as quickly and easily as the Judge did here.
Re:Bravo
I have to say that I agree with Tristan here... specifically, "the harder it is to get a trademark, patent, copyright, etc., the better off the whole system is."
The more rigorous a review is undertaken before IP rights are granted, the more valuable these rights actually are to rights holders. The amount of uncertainty, in terms of what action constitute infringement, is reduced because there will be a rigorous review should result in the clearer definition of the scope of such rights.
That being said, I believe that hotels.com, as a unitary mark, is arguably distinctive enough to warrant trademark protection.