Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Dog Owner Must Take Down Billboard Depicting Dog Dressed As Ellen

Sometimes I think that intellectual property attorneys have no sense of humor.  A lawyer for a billboard company made a dog owner trying to get her dog on the Ellen DeGeneres show take down her billboard depicting her dog dressed like Ellen.  The billboard attorney claims that the Ellen DeGeneres show asked to have the billboard taken down, but representatives for the show said they did not know about the sign.  Another interesting twist is that some billboard salesmen recommended that the dog owner dress her dog as Ellen rather than Elvis--her initial plan was the Elvis idea.  Based on their recommendation that an Ellen dog would more likely succeed in getting on Ms. DeGeneres' show, she changed her plan. 

It would be one thing if Ms. DeGeneres wanted the sign taken down.  And, yes, the billboard company may be held contributorily liable for infringement of Ms. DeGeneres' name and likeness, but it seems to me that Ms. DeGeneres should be the one to make that call.  Who knows? Maybe Ms. DeGeneres appreciates the free publicity and thinks the sign is funny rather than offensive?

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