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Academy Awards Settles Copyright Infringement Lawsuit with Rental Company
Author: Scarinci Hollenbeck, LLC
Date: March 1, 2013
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Event rental companies hosting Oscar-themed parties might think twice about furnishing the party with the iconic gold Oscar statuettes.
Event rental companies hosting Oscar-themed parties might think twice about furnishing the party with the iconic gold Oscar statuettes.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – which has gained a reputation for defending copyrights and trademarks – settled a lawsuit against events rental company TheEventLine.com and its president Robert Hollingsworth after they agreed to stop selling and renting eight-foot Oscar statues to customers, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Academy sued the company in March 2011 after it violated copyright and entertainment law provisions by marketing and selling replica statues. Further, the Academy noted that it sent a letter notifying TheEventLine.com of the copyright infringement, but that the correspondence went unanswered.
TheEventLine.com filed a counterclaim in June and argued that they did not market statues that were “strikingly, substantially, or confusingly similar to the Academy’s ‘Oscar’ statuettes,” the Times reports. It also noted that it never received any letters from the Academy and released a new line of statues that were similar, yet slightly more muscular than the traditional Oscar statues, the newspaper added.
After a long court battle, however, the event rental company agreed to stop selling and renting the replica statues and pay the Academy’s attorney’s fees.
- Industries: Entertainment & Media
- Practices: Copyright
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