{"id":365,"date":"2018-09-30T12:31:12","date_gmt":"2018-09-30T16:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/?p=365"},"modified":"2018-10-14T12:43:45","modified_gmt":"2018-10-14T16:43:45","slug":"beyonce-v-feyonce-if-enough-consumers-get-the-joke-there-may-not-be-a-likelihood-of-confusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/?p=365","title":{"rendered":"Beyonc\u00e9 v. Feyonce &#8212; If Enough Consumers Get the Joke, There May not be a Likelihood of Confusion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In Beyonc\u00e9 Giselle Knowles-Carter v. Feyonce, Inc., [16-CV-2532 (AJN)](September 30, 2018)\u00a0the Southern District of New York <a href=\"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Beyonce-v-Feyonce.pdf\">denied summary judgment\u00a0<\/a>to plaintiff, the entertainer Beyonc\u00e9, against defendants for the sale of\u00a0merchandise using the brand name &#8220;Feyonce&#8221; (rhymes with fianc\u00e9), \u00a0which defendants market to the engaged to be married.<\/p>\n<p>There was no dispute that in marketing to fiance purchasers, defendants chose the formation &#8220;FEYONCE&#8221; in order to capitalize off of the exceedingly famous BEYONCE mark. However the district said that that alone does not establish a likelihood of confusion &#8212; the critical question was whether a rational consumer would mistakenly believe FEYONCE products are sponsored by or affiliated with BEYONCE products.<\/p>\n<p>The court said: &#8220;A rational jury might or might not conclude that the pun here is sufficient to dispel any confusion among the purchasing public. Thus, there is a genuine dispute of material fact that requires denial of the motion for summary judgment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Intent to capitalize on fame is not enough, if enough\u00a0rational consumers\u00a0get the pun there may not be a likelihood of confusion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Beyonc\u00e9 Giselle Knowles-Carter v. Feyonce, Inc., [16-CV-2532 (AJN)](September 30, 2018)\u00a0the Southern District of New York denied summary judgment\u00a0to plaintiff, the entertainer Beyonc\u00e9, against defendants for the sale of\u00a0merchandise using the brand name &#8220;Feyonce&#8221; (rhymes with fianc\u00e9), \u00a0which defendants market &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/?p=365\">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":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-likelihood-of-confusion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365","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=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":367,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions\/367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}