Jones Soda is running Campaign Cola, offering people the ability to purchase Yes We Can Cola, Ron Paul Revolution Cola, Pure McCain Cola, and Capitol Hillary Cola (in order of popularity). Let’s assume they have copyright permission for the photos used on the labels. Right of publicity violation? Clinton in particular might be able to use the licensing fees. NB: Jones Soda gave me one of my favorite trademark exam problems ever.
Absolutely!
ReplyDeleteSeems an easy violation of the NY statute, plus a tort in dozens of states.
Doesn't help that the company's policy (as per your exam!) is to obtain releases in these circumstances.
It's hard for me to see how any borrowed-from-copyright defense such as "fair use" would do Jones much good. Is this some kind of a comment on HRC? Or merely trading on the value of her persona, image, etc.?