WASHINGTON, June 8 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday supercharged Jack Daniel’s in its hallmark conflict with a dog accessory business that offered a parody chew toy looking like the distiller’s commonly acknowledged black-label bourbon bottle.
The choice tossed out a lower court’s judgment that the pun-laden “Bad Spaniels” vinyl chew toy offered by VIP Products LLC is an “meaningful work” secured by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. Jack Daniel’s Properties Inc is owned by Louisville, Kentucky-based Brown-Forman Corp.
The conflict pitted the bourbon brand name’s hallmark rights versus legal defenses for imaginative expression – in this case a send-up by Phoenix-based VIP Products of Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 Tennessee bourbon bottle including funny dog poop-themed modifications like a label reading “the Old No. 2, on your Tennessee Carpet.”
Lower courts had actually ruled in favor of VIP Products after using what is called the Rogers test, which has actually permitted artists to legally utilize another’s hallmark when doing so has creative significance to their work and would not clearly mislead customers about its source.
The test was crafted in a 1989 choice by the New York-based second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a case brought by Hollywood legend Ginger Rogers. The starlet unsuccessfully took legal action against to obstruct the 1986 movie “Ginger and Fred” from director Federico Fellini that described her famous dance collaboration with star Fred Astaire.
A legal representative for President Joe Biden’s administration had actually prompted the justices to dispose of the Rogers test in favor of the more-rigorous multi-factor test typically utilized in trademark-infringement cases, which looks directly at whether the acts would likely trigger market confusion.
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2020 ruled in favor of VIP Products on 2 premises. The 9th Circuit discovered the Bad Spaniels toy was an “meaningful work” protected by the First Amendment. It likewise ruled that VIP Product’s usage of the Jack Daniel’s hallmark was noncommercial since it was utilized not just to offer dog toys however likewise “to communicate a funny message,” and hence had actually not stained the distiller’s unique mark.
(Reporting by John Kruzel in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham)
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