{"id":301,"date":"2017-11-08T17:23:52","date_gmt":"2017-11-08T22:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/?p=301"},"modified":"2017-11-08T17:25:29","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T22:25:29","slug":"is-the-reproduction-of-a-branded-product-in-a-depiction-of-real-life-an-infringement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/?p=301","title":{"rendered":"Is the Reproduction of a Branded Product in a Depiction of Real Life an Infringement?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AM General LLC maker of HUMVEE\u00ae-branded vehicles, has <a href=\"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/AM-General-v-Activision-Blizzard-complaint-2017-11-07.pdf\">sued<\/a> Activision Blizzard, Inc., Activision Publishing, Inc., and Major League Gaming\u00a0Corp. in the Southern District of New York for\u00a0using AM General\u2019s\u00a0trademarks and trade dress in advertising and promotion of their Call of Duty\u00ae video games, featuring AM General\u2019s trademarks and vehicles bearing\u00a0AM General&#8217;s trade dress prominently in their video games, and causing the manufacture and sale of collateral toys and books.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Complaint, AM General has licensed a number of video game manufacturers,\u00a0 including\u00a0Infogrames Inc.,\u00a0Novalogic, Inc.,\u00a0 Codemasters Software Company, Ltd., and THQ Inc. so AM General is not opposed to\u00a0 their products appearing in video games, just in video games for which they do not get paid.<\/p>\n<p>AM General alleges that the defendants\u2019 use of its trade dress and marks\u00a0in connection with the advertising, promotion, and sale of videogames has\u00a0caused and is likely to cause purchasers and potential purchasers to falsely believe that these products\u00a0are associated with, are approved, licensed, or sponsored by\u00a0AM General.\u00a0 With respect to toys, AM General might have a point,\u00a0 However, with respect to the video games themselves, it is possible that purchasers and potential purchasers will simply think that the games are realistic depictions of the battlefield where AM General&#8217;s products are used.<\/p>\n<p>In\u00a0<i>S.S. Entm\u2019t 2000, Inc. v. Rock Star Videos, Inc.<\/i>, the 9th Circuit found that the depiction of plaintiff&#8217;s L.A. \u201cgentlemen club\u201d PLAY PEN\u00a0 as a virtual strip club called Pig Pen in\u00a0<i>GTA: San Andreas <\/i>did not infringe plaintiff&#8217;s rights.\u00a0 The Ninth Circuit found that the First Amendment protects an artistic works\u2019 use of a trademark, unless the use has no artistic relevance whatsoever, or unless it explicitly misleads as to the source or content of the work.\u00a0 The Ninth Circuit thought it was unlikely that the video game was produced by the plaintiff.\u00a0 It would seem that AM General might have similar difficulties.<\/p>\n<p>AM General made millions selling the government Humvees for use on the battlefield.\u00a0 Does a videogame manufacturer need permission to reproduce these vehicles in a depiction of the battlefield? Trademarks are a part of daily life, and if some of these trademarks are caught up in a representation of daily life, is the trademark owner really harmed?<\/p>\n<div id=\"container\" class=\"container_16\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AM General LLC maker of HUMVEE\u00ae-branded vehicles, has sued Activision Blizzard, Inc., Activision Publishing, Inc., and Major League Gaming\u00a0Corp. in the Southern District of New York for\u00a0using AM General\u2019s\u00a0trademarks and trade dress in advertising and promotion of their Call of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/?p=301\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fair-use","category-likelihood-of-confusion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=301"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":305,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions\/305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}