#6 Copyright and Fair Use

 Copyright Infringement in Brands

 Copyright is very important when it comes to utilizing one's work. Making sure the owner has complete control over their work is essential. Many times people have stolen from creative minds and perpetrated their work as their own and many of whom did not have copyright and result in their work stolen for good. To get the full basis of what copyright is you must understand what it means. Copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to make copies of a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form (Copyright Wiki). Copyright infringement happens once or twice whether the person knew of their discretion. Copyright infringement (colloquially referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright law without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, such as the right to reproduce, distribute, display or perform the protected work, or to make derivative works. The copyright holder is typically the work's creator, or a publisher or other business to whom copyright has been assigned. Copyright holders routinely invoke legal and technological measures to prevent and penalize copyright infringement (Copyright infringement Wiki). Now copyright infringement is mostly common in movies and TV shows. Basically in TV shows or movies when illegal websites upload newly released episodes or movies to unknown websites and cast it as their own. The copyright infringement will be talking about in this blog is not about movies and TV shows but brands. 

    In this case, you will see how it pays off to make sure you copyright your property and when you don't. A popular copyright infringement case dated back all the way to 2009 involved Gucci and Guess. By looking at both names of the brands you see how similarities would arise. With both brand names starting with a G and they both created luxury items, we can see where a copyright situation would rear its ugly head. In 2009 Gucci sued Guess for infringing on five Gucci trademarks, including the use of similar logos. Guess used many of Gucci’s distinctive marks, including a green and red stripe used on handbags, the repeating, inverted GG pattern, and the company’s use of brown and beige colors, mostly used in conjunction with diamond shape patterns. Of course, Gucci came out on top, but not in the way they had hoped for. Initially asking for $221m in damages, the judge told Gucci they were only entitled to an accounting of profits and limited the damages. In the end, Gucci only received $4.7m (Real Business). 

    Although Gucci claimed victory in the first round of lawsuits, Guess enforced a counterclaim rebuttal In the counterclaim, Guess sought to have three of Gucci's registered trademarks nullified in Milan--and it won. An Italian court ruled Friday that Gucci's diamond pattern, G logo and "Flora" pattern trademarks had been cancelled, and that Guess’s Quattro G-diamond pattern was not derived from Gucci's double-G, WWD reports. The canceling of Gucci's trademarks is a pretty big deal, as it means that anyone can use a G logo in any of these signature patterns. Unsurprisingly, Gucci is not pleased. The brand described Guess's now-permitted use of G-based logos as “unlawful and parasitic free-riding on Gucci’s trademark and, in general, its brand image.” Gucci plans to file an appeal, calling the court's decision "potentially dangerous for the protection of ‘Made in Italy' (Fashionista). Furthermore the legal proceedings have ceased to exist and both parties came to legal agreement. This shows in a case like this you should always copyright your things and have proof of ownership of your property.