Screwed by the Lawyers: Difference between revisions

[[Copyright]] and [[Trademark]] law have gotten in the way of or forced cancellation for many works. No matter how promising, popular or profitable a show is, it's still apt to get canceled if it would be ''illegal'' to keep broadcasting. This can be prone to [[What an Idiot!]] moments on the part of the owner of the intellectual property in question, since if it's that profitable, it makes sense to license the work rather than shut it down, unless of course the artist is [[Doing It for the Art]].

 

It might be important to note that in some of these cases (particularly ones where big corporation X is suing over similarities in name or style), the company is doing it because they are compelled to -- United States trademark law generally demands that anything that even hints at IP infringement has to be defended against by the holder. If they knowingly decline to fight an infringement, a court later on could rule in a IP case that they willingly abandoned the trademark. This has happened with Aspirin (once a Bayer trademark<ref>Although [[World War I]] helped put a nail in that coffin</ref>), Cellophane, and other "genericized" trademarks. It's also why most productions bend over backwards to make sure that [[Real Life]] product names are not mentioned at all (unless as [[Product Placement]]), and certainly ''never'' as generics.

 

 

Related to [[Screwed by the Network]].