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How do you get the license to a property?

Is it possible to get out of paying a license fee for intellectual property by citing the fact that the owner of the intellectual property allowed unauthorized usage by others?

  • http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081125/0813222945.shtml How Dr. Seuss's Lawyers Ruined Christmasfrom the no-whoville-in-lousville dept Thanks to both Eric and Gunnar who simultaneously sent in the news of lawyers representing Dr. Seuss's estate who http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2008-11-25-seuss-louisville_N.htm with a lawsuit if they didn't stop a planned "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"-themed celebration as a part of its Light Up Louisville holiday event. The lawyers pointed out that the characters are copyrighted, and could not be used. Legally, they may be correct, but as Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson pointed out: "It appears these lawyers' hearts are two sizes too small." Given the very subject matter, and the joy which Dr. Seuss stories bring to kids, you would have thought that the lawyers might think twice on this one. Apparently not. I'm sure that all the Grinch-themed aspects of the celebration probably would have made new Seuss fans out of many kids, but apparently, Dr. Seuss' estate would prefer that not happen. From the above article there was this comment: Protecting Universal? At Universal Studios Florida, there's a fully endorsed and properly licensed show based on the movie version of the story of the Grinch. Maybe the Seuss lawyers are protecting their licensing agreement with Universal. After all, if some town in Kentucky can perform a Grinch show without paying licensing fees, why does Universal need to pay? I think the person who made the comment is wrong.  With regard to copyright, one does not need to defend it, but they have that right; they can ignore 100 instances of copyright infringement, but can go after the 101st instance..  However, Dr. Seuss characters are trademarked as well.  Failing to defend a trademark, however, is a responsibility unless the owner of the trademark has no problem with losing the exclusive right to the trademark and having it declared generic.  Am I right?

  • Answer:

    Generally speaking, no - another's violation of someone's rights does not generally grant license for you to violate their rights.  The only exception to this is trademark, which in the US has a principle known as "abandonment" and requires the owner of the mark to vigorously enforce their rights to the use of their mark; failure to do so might result in the court finding that they have abandoned their mark and all rights associated with it.  As for patent, copyright, and other intellectual property interests, the violation by another is highly unlikely to be a valid basis for your own infringement.This answer is not a substitute for professional legal advice....

Cliff Gilley at Quora Visit the source

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Part of the problem here is a bad assumption: Louisville was going to violate both copyright and trademark. Copyright refers to the protection of a fixed original work of authorship some form of intellectual, broadly speaking.  For example, the actual images/pages in a Suess book. Trademark refers to the protection of a specific design, image, slogan, etc.  While it's related to copyright, it's not the same beast.  The design of a character, for example, can be trademarked even though only particular images of that character would be copyrighted (since copyright only applies to a fixed work, e.g. a drawing).  Technically, trademarks can even be limited to design elements, such as a particular aspect of a character, so long as they're sufficiently distinct and applicable. So, while copyright cannot be deemed abandoned in this way, is correct to point out that trademarks can be so abandoned.  As a result, the Seuss estate (or whomever owns those properties) must defend its marks or else risk losing the ability to control those marks.

Matthew Bohrer

Not an IP lawyer, but I think it depends on whether you were given an exclusive right to the property; also if you can show that your interest was hurt by the fact that others were allowed free use.

Israel Sands

That's like stealing someone's car because that person didn't prosecute his own brother for borrowing it without permission.

Chris Smith

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