Trademark Law – Chippendales costume can’t get elevated trademark protection

Although the male strippers group Chippendales has a number of trademarks, including a trademark for what I thought was their famous (infamous?) costume of a bow tie and cuffs (see below), it was denied in its effort to register the costume as an inherently distinctive (the highest form of trademark protection) trademark.  Now don’t you look at that drawing and think Chippendales?  The Patent and Trademark Office didn’t think so and now the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit agrees, finding the costume was too much like the Playboy bunny costume and in any event, no male stripper costume (which often mimics male icons like firemen) can be considered inherently distinctive.  Better luck next time.



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ADA Lawsuits – Defense of disabled access lawsuits still difficult

The LA Times reports that despite efforts to make ADA lawsuits more reasonable and less a vehicle for extortion, the ADA cases continue unabated.  This is because California law still allows damages of $4,000 per violation.  Moreover, to get the benefits of a recent change in the law making it harder to bring an ADA lawsuit, it requires business to undergo a review of their premises by a certified accessibility specialist, the cost of which (with repairs/alterations) can rival the cost of fighting off an ADA lawsuit and thus discourages businesses from taking this action.

LT Pacific Law Group has defended several of these cases, which generally arise from a disabled person visiting a business not to shop but for the sole purpose of finding violations (one of the most notorious examples is profiled here).  These cases rarely get to trial because the law can allow for the recovery of attorney fees and the business model of the plaintiff attorneys filing these suits generally allows for settlements in the neighborhood of $5,000: just enough for the attorney and Plaintiff to make a tidy profit but not enough that the business would fight such cases to the death.



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Real Estate Law – Business Law – McCourt trial shows value of discovery

In our business and real estate cases, it is not uncommon to hear that certain documents have been forged or altered or are incomplete.  When this happens it is important in pretrial discovery to inspect the original of such documents, as the ongoing divorce trial of Frank and Jamie McCourt shows as detailed in the LA Weekly.



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Business Law – LT Pacific News – LT Pacific client wins judgment

On August 19, 2010, judgment was entered in favor of a LT Pacific Law Group client.  The client hired a company to export vehicles to Dubai.  The deal fell apart when a car broker failed to purchase the vehicles after receiving money from the client.  The main issue was that the exporter denied responsibility for the actions of the car broker.  Although there was no formal written contract between the parties, Kenneth Tanji, Jr., successfully represented the client in a Los Angeles Superior Court trial and the client prevailed against the exporter for breach of contract.



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Commercial Misappropriation – no remedies for a property owner whose house was photographed for a company’s brochure

We have represented clients who have had their photograph used for a company’s advertisements without their permission.  The difficulty in seeking legal relief in this situation is shown by a post in the Property, intangible blog, which details what happened when the owner of a famous house found a bank was using a photograph of his house in a mortgage brochure, causing some in the general pubic to think his house was being foreclosed on.



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Fashion Law – New protection against knockoffs for designer clothes?

LT Pacific Law Group has represented several clients in copyright and trademark infringement cases concerning alleged “knockoff” apparel.  The Fashion Incubator blog has a good analysis on the proposed law, the Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act, which if passed would essentially provide 3 years of protection against knockoffs for “unique” designs.



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