Ben Carson is suing people making Ben Carson for President T-shirts, gets destroyed by logic [View all]

[eridani]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/09/18/1422699/-Ben-Carson-is-suing-people-making-Ben-Carson-for-President-T-shirts-gets-destroyed-by-logic

Ben Carson has a new lawyer. An intellectual rights lawyer. His name is Clyde Vanel and he sent a cease and desist letter to CafePress for Intellectual Property Infringement.

It has come to our attention that an unauthorized use of my clients' intellectual property,
including but not limited to trademark infringement, copyright infringement, misappropriation of name and likeness, privacy rights infringement is being hosted on the CafePress.com service and platform.

CafePress writes back:

Starting with the related issues of trademark infringement and misappropriation of name and likeness, we acknowledge there is a campaign organization called Ben Carson for President 2016, and you, acting on behalf of the campaign, have applied for a trademark registration for a logo that includes those words, shown in specific color pattern. But so far as have been able to discern, none of the items linked at the web page you have identified uses that logo as it appears in the registration application and on each page of your client's campaign web site.

At most, the items display the phrase "Ben Carson for President 2016," often appearing in the patriotic colors of red, white and blue. Many of them simply use Carson's name, or just his given name or his profession. You cannot use trademark theories to ride roughshod over members of the American public who either share your clients' views and favor Carson's candidacy, or for that matter disagree with their views and oppose Carson's candidacy.

Good point. More?

More important are the issues of fair use and the First Amendment, which apply equally to your purported misappropriation of name and likeness claims as well as to your trademark claims. Speech about a candidate for president is squarely protected by the First Amendment, hence any effort to use trademark law to quash such uses is highly suspect. Although CafePress users' products are sold, their contents are noncommercial speech, which qualifies for full First Amendment protection.