It is Possible to Knock Off a News Story?

Well the writers at Women's Wear Daily definitely do not view imitation as the sincerest form of flattery. Women's Wear Daily did a story on what they think that Michelle Obama will be wearing to her husband's inauguration and ball. Women's Wear Daily did go straight to the designers and the designers provided actual sketches of designs (complete with a willowy looking Michelle Obama). Their sketches appeared in the news story like the picture above (left).

US Weekly seems to have lifted these very sketches for their own version of the same news story. WWD fought back with their own article that can be read here:

http://www.wwd.com/media-news/fashion-memopad/is-it-real-or-is-it-memorex-ami-extends-again-1895968?justin=1895968#/article/media-news/fashion-memopad/is-it-real-or-is-it-memorex-ami-extends-again-1895968?full=true

Since the sketches were voluntarily given by the designers to both news outlets, there is no foul play in the legal sense. WWD admitted this, but still pointed out that it seemed unethical in their eyes. Meow!

Keep Your Friends Close and Your Enemies Closer

Three days ago, Amazon and Google rallied behind online retailer EBay by filing an amicus brief on its behalf. The brief was written by Samir Jain and Patrick J. Carome over at Wilmer Hale. It details why the appellate court should uphold the district courts decision in favor of EBay. The brief outlines how Amazon and Google are interactive computer services that are multifaceted. Once of these facets is serving as a platform for internet commerce for buyers and sellers around the world who would have no other platform to actually do business with one another. The brief details that such a platform allows for development of efficient markets by allowing a forum for sales of used goods. These would be known as secondary markets.

The amicus brief outlines its argument for upholding the district court's decision by the premise that the generalized knowledge of infringement by third parties is not sufficient to trigger liability for contributory infringement. The brief rightfully argues that prevailing precedent has held that specific knowledge of infringement is required. The generalized knowledge of infringement as Tiffany would like the appellate court to hold would also place an undue burden on EBay. It would also make the whole development of sales of used goods on the internet obsolete.

This is an interesting turn of events. As posted earlier, IACC had submitted an amicus brief in favor of Tiffany's arguments. I read the amicus brief put forth by Amazon, Google and some others. It is very compelling because if the appellate court reverses the district court decision, it will affect internet commerce in a very scary way. It places a lot more responsibility on the shoulders of internet commerce providers such as EBay and Amazon to regulate the activities of sellers in a way that would be logically impossible given the current model. The internet commerce model would collapse and leave a host of dead internet giants in its wake. No wonder Google and Amazon submitted this brief. I will keep you posted about the upcoming details surrounding this case. It could change internet commerce as we know it.

Barbie Puts the Smackdown on Bratz

Well it looks like its going to be a better Christmas for Barbie this year....and right in time to battle off the recession blues. Judge Larson has given MGA until after the holiday season to clear shelves of Bratz dolls.

Mattel, Inc. won a court order to prevent MGA Entertainment from making and selling their Bratz Dolls because they were found to infringe upon Mattel's copyrights.

U.S. District judge Stephen Larson in California granted this court order yesterday. Mattel has lost sales to the popular Bratz Dolls since they launched in 2001. The Bratz Dolls are multi ethnic, provocative, and created by former Mattel designer Carter Bryant. Bryant created the name, sketches, and dolls while still employed by Mattel. Mattel claims that all of the creative work done by Bryant legally belongs to Mattel and as such, has enjoined MGA Entertainment from making the dolls, selling the dolls, and even using the name Bratz.

“Mattel has established its exclusive rights to the Bratz drawings, and the court has found that hundreds of the MGA parties’ products, including all the currently available core female fashion dolls Mattel was able to locate in the marketplace, infringe those rights,” Larson said in his ruling.

Mattel has been awarded $100 million dollars in damages which is five percent of its requested $2 billion dollars in damages. Mattel claims that the toymaker MGA Entertainment makes close to $779 million dollars in profits from sales of its Bratz dolls. MGA claims its profits from the dolls are closer to $450 million.

Please keep in mind that this is just an injunction against MGA. MGA can still appeal the order. But this appeal will be difficult considering that a jury has already found that MGA's dolls do infringe on Mattel's copyrights and awarded damages. The burden lies on MGA to find clear and convincing evidence that their dolls do not infringe on Mattel's copyrights. Judge Larson has indicated that certain dolls from the Bratz line can continue to be sold so long as they are packaged separately from the infringing dolls.

Mattel, Inc. has been looking strong in sales of its Barbie dolls and have captured sales with their Hannah Montana dolls. Mattel also makes the dolls for Disney's popular High School Musical series. Bratz has moved from the number two doll to number four. Will MGA try to fight this injunction? Will tweens be flocking to toy stores for their last chance to get a now "contraband" Bratz Doll? You know that the winner out of this will be EBay!

Cyber Monday > Black Friday (At Least EBay Hopes So)

After EBay has been slapped with lawsuits from designers because of its online flea market style, it has decided to revamp and rebrand itself in order to keep up with the Googles and Amazons of the world. Right in time for Cyber Monday, EBay has decided to put more effort into marketing its Brand New section. Brand New is EBay's bid to be considered not just a flea market, but an online retailer with great presence. Joe Fernandez from Marketing Week has put together a very good snapshot of EBay this past week:

" The new campaign moves eBay away from the animated characters used to represent the buyer-seller relationship. Instead, it focuses on the website's "Brand New" section - a part of the website which directly competes with the likes of Amazon and Play.com. Jason Goodman, managing director of Albion, the agency behind eBay's latest campaign, says: 'By explaining that the site now has thousands of brand new items, the kind of things that they're currently trudging up and down the high street for, we hope to be able to reframe eBay as a modern retailer.'

Check out the whole snapshot here: http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=63501&d=259&h=263&f=3