Way more than an everyday interest in IP
Whilst In-N-Out don’t operate any permanent restaurants in Australia – only pop-ups, as we lamented in our previous post – the Federal Court ruled last week that its registered trade marks had been infringed by local chain “Down-N-Out” (DNO) and that In-N-Out had a sufficient reputation in Australia such that DNO was found to be read more...Social media queens Sophie Guidolin and Rachael Finch both run fitness businesses through Instagram, promoting the #healthy lifestyle. The contested use of the word ‘BOD’ by Rachael Finch led Sophie Guidolin to apply for an interlocutory injunction for trade mark infringement, as well as passing off and/or breach of the Australian Consumer Law. In deciding read more...
It’s now a widely acknowledged reality that commercial organisations need defined social media strategies and policies in place as a framework for approaching the world of ’gramming, liking, sharing, connecting (and, a recent addition to the Facebook stable, “reacting”) online. An increasingly important part of that strategy is often engaging social media ambassadors or “influencers” read more...
That selfie stick might actually be a wise investment – after all, your next Instagram post could be worth thousands. US artist Richard Prince’s latest exhibition, ‘New Portraits’, is a series of printed screenshots of other people’s Instagram photos. The going price for each piece? A cool US$90,000 (roughly A$115,000). The amount the original Instagram read more...
Social media has transformed the ‘hash’ symbol (#) from a mere symbol key into a phenomenon of its own. Yet the addition of the # symbol before a word has not been so simple in the IP world and has many potential implications. For the uninitiated, let’s have a look at the hashtag’s capability. First, read more...
Our latest posts on the Adam Gilchrist parody Twitter account saga (see here and here) have generated such interest that we thought we’d do a little more digging. Could ‘Fake Gilly’, for instance, replicate his parody account on either Facebook or Instagram? The short answer is: ‘No’. While Twitter expressly allows the creation of parody read more...
