July 11, 2023
Did you know that every time you say “Taco Tuesday,” you’re using someone’s trademark?
At least for right now… But a new legal petition is looking to change that. In May, Mexican fast-food behemoth Taco Bell filed a proceeding with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) against Taco John’s, a Wyoming-based fast-food chain that, unbeknownst to the average burrito lover, actually trademarked the phrase “Taco Tuesday” way back in 1989.
Taco Bell’s petition is a rare work of legal writing — written, at times, in colloquial English, it has moments where it’s even pretty funny. One extract: “People like tacos on Tuesday. They just do. It’s even fun to say: ‘Taco Tuesday.’ Tacos have the unique ability to bring people together and bring joy to their lives on an otherwise mediocre day of the week.” (For another great example of this kind of “brand voice” legal writing, see this Netflix cease and desist letter.) In support of its campaign, Taco Bell has even enlisted LeBron James, who himself tried to trademark the phrase “Taco Tuesday” in 2019, but had his application rejected because the USPTO found the term to be too common to serve as a trademark.
Suffice it to say that Taco John’s, which currently owns the trademark for “Taco Tuesday” in every state except New Jersey (don’t ask; that’s a topic for another blog post), is not amused. It responded to Taco Bell’s petition to cancel its trademark by noting, among other things, that Taco Bell is not seeking to cancel Taco John’s trademark in order to bring people happiness, but rather “in an effort to sell more tacos.”
In a statement released by Taco Bell, James — the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and self-appointed taco promoter — said, “‘Taco Tuesday’ is a tradition that everyone should be able to celebrate. All restaurants, all families, all businesses — everybody…it’s a celebration that nobody should own.”
Taco John’s will probably lose the right to prevent others from using the phrase “Taco Tuesday” because, as the USPTO pointed out in connection with James’ application, the phrase has become ubiquitous and, as such, has lost its ability to function as a trademark. This is what’s called “genericide,” when trademarks cease to be associated with a brand and the brand loses its rights.
However this spicy little kerfuffle pans out, it’s a lesson in what trademark owners should and can do to prevent genericide from happening to them (NB: the following tips may be most productively read while enjoying a chalupa supreme):
- Keep in mind the purpose of a trademark. Trademarks are intended to indicate the source of a good or service. When, for example, the Xerox Corporation started making photocopiers, the intent was that a consumer who saw the word “Xerox” on a copy machine would know that the machine was made by the Xerox Corporation and not some other manufacturer like Pitney Bowes.
- Use your mark as a trademark and make sure others do too. Problems arise when a trademark is used to describe the thing or the service itself instead of a specifically-branded thing or service. For example, Xerox ran into trouble when consumers started using the word “Xerox” to refer to both the process of copying a document and the copied document itself, instead of a machine made by Xerox or a copy made by a Xerox machine. Once upon a time, the company addressed this through a clever ad campaign informing consumers “when you use ‘Xerox’ the way you use ‘aspirin,’ we get a headache.” (This was a clever play on the fact that “aspirin” was once a brand name but became generic.) Their goal was to get people to use the word “photocopy” instead of “Xerox,” and while the impact on conversation in the copy room is certainly debatable, Xerox maintained its trademark.
- Have a generic noun ready to go. When you develop your trademark make sure you have a generic noun to be used with the trademark when communicating your brand to consumers, competitors, and the media. For example, Xerox is careful to say “Xerox photocopiers,” not “Xeroxes.”
- Enforce your rights. It’s great to get a trademark, but that’s just half of the battle. If a trademark ceases to be associated solely with the company that owns it, the mark no longer identifies the source of the goods or services. This means that to keep a trademark, the party that owns it has to constantly stop others from using its trademark and not wait for years until someone disputes their right to it. Stopping others can be through sending cease and desist letters, bringing an action to enforce trademark rights, or opposing efforts by another company to register a similar trademark.
- Use the Ⓡ symbol. This lets others know that a word or a phrase has been registered as a trademark. But remember: if the word or phrase hasn’t been registered as a trademark with the USPTO, you can’t use the Ⓡ symbol.
- Keep detailed records. This includes records of your advertising costs, revenue figures, and unsolicited press mentions, all of which help to prove “acquired distinctiveness.”
However the taco case turns out, rest easy knowing nothing can stop us from eating tacos on Tuesday . . . or on any other day.
June 27, 2023
Intellectual property class action lawsuits have, historically, been relatively rare. But here, at the dawn of AI, everything is changing fast, and we already have what appears to be the first attempt at an AI-related class action: Young v. NeoCortext, Inc.
This action is currently pending in the Central District of California against the owners of Reface, a “deep fake” generative AI app that enables users to replace a celebrity’s face in a still photo from a film or TV with their own face. The app includes a searchable catalog that allows a user to select the star whose face they want to replace. This library includes images of Kyland Young — a finalist in season 23 of CBS’ Big Brother — who is seeking to represent a class of California residents including musicians, athletes, celebrities “and other well-known individuals” who have had their “name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness” displayed in Reface.
Young alleges that Reface’s inclusion of his image violates his rights under California’s right of publicity statute. This law protects individuals against the unauthorized use of their image, name, or voice to advertise or sell a product. His claim hinges on a specific detail: Reface promotes paid subscriptions with a free version that allows users to generate an image with their face in the place of a celebrity. Images generated by the free version are watermarked with Reface’s logo and say “made with Reface app.” According to Young, this amounts to an ad for the paid version of the Reface app. Thus, he claims that Reface’s owner is exploiting his image (and the image of other celebrities and demi-celebrities) to encourage users to purchase the paid version of the app, which brings the app within the ambit of California’s right of publicity statute.
Lawyers for Neocortext, which owns the app, have moved to dismiss the complaint. They argue, among other things, that Plaintiff’s claims are preempted by the Copyright Act and are barred by the First Amendment.
On preemption, Defendant argues that since images of Young used on the app are owned by CBS, not Young, any action for the unauthorized use of these images would have to be brought by CBS, not Plaintiff. It argues that CBS’ claims (if any) would sound in copyright infringement, not a violation of the right of publicity. It seems likely that the Defendant will prevail on this argument.
Even if the Defendant doesn’t prevail on this argument and the case survives the motion to dismiss, this copyright issue could create problems certifying a class. One issue courts consider in determining whether a suit can be heard as a class action is “commonality.” This requires judges to consider if the potential class members (in this case, other celebrities) are likely to have more issues in common than not. The possibility that some claims might be preempted by copyright law while others are not might lead the judge to conclude that common issues don’t predominate. This could preclude the certification of the action as a class action.
Defendant also argues that Plaintiff’s claim should be dismissed because it “violates the expressive rights of Defendant and its users that are guaranteed by the First Amendment.” Here, Defendant claims that modifying celebrity images to convey an idea or message can be an exercise of creative self-expression within the scope of the First Amendment, and thus Reface performs a “transformative use,” which brings it outside of the ambit of California’s right of publicity statute.
All in all, at least on copyright preemption, Defendant’s arguments seem more convincing.
With that said, this lawsuit points to how AI is making it easier to manipulate celebrities’ images. This will undoubtedly lead to more right of publicity lawsuits.
June 13, 2023
Well, that didn’t take long.
A pair of lawyers and their firm have very publicly and quite thoroughly embarrassed themselves by asking ChatGPT for case citations that turn out to have been made up by the trendy AI chatbot.
There are so many points of stupidity and laziness here: The global frenzy to adopt ChatGPT, the inability or failure of attorneys to understand new technology, one lawyer’s unthinking reliance on the work of a colleague, a law firm practicing in an area it is not equipped to handle … Let’s break it all down.
New York City law firm Levidow, Levidow & Oberman was working on what is, in most ways, an entirely unremarkable lawsuit: Roberto Mata v. Avianca. Their client — Roberto Mata — sued the airline Avianca claiming that, while on a 2019 flight from San Salvador to New York’s JFK airport, an airline employee failed to take sufficient care in operating a metal serving cart that hit Mata in the knee and seriously injured him.
In January 2023 Avianca moved to dismiss the case in the Southern District of New York Court, asserting the statute of limitations had expired. In March, Plaintiff’s counsel — Peter LoDuca — replied with an affidavit claiming otherwise. In his affidavit, LoDuca cited decisions from several cases including Varghese v. China Southern Airlines and Zicherman v. Korean Air Lines, both of which were supposedly decided by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Avianca’s counsel quickly pointed out there was no evidence that those or other cases cited by Plaintiff’s counsel existed or, if they did exist, stood for the propositions that Plaintiff said they did.
The judge — P. Kevin Castel — was perplexed, and ordered LoDuca to file an affidavit attaching copies of the cases he cited. LoDuca complied — well, sort of. He submitted an affidavit that attached what he claimed were the official court decisions.
Defendant’s counsel again notified the Court that the cases did not exist or did not actually say what Plaintiff’s counsel had represented.
The judge, now rather angry, ordered LoDuca to show up in Court and explain exactly how he came to submit an affidavit — a sworn document — citing and attaching non-existent cases. In response, LoDuca submitted another affidavit saying that he had relied on Steven Schwartz, another attorney in his firm, to research and draft his affidavit. (By way of background, LoDuca and Schwartz have been practicing law for more than 30 years.)
And this is where the story goes from weird to bad. Really bad.
The reason LoDuca was appearing in Court instead of Schwartz is because Schwartz isn’t admitted to practice in federal court. He’s only admitted in state court where the case started out. To make matters worse, it turns out that despite the fact that Levidow, Levidow & Oberman were representing Mr. Mata in federal court, its lawyers didn’t have a subscription that allowed them to search federal cases.
Without this access to federal cases, Schwartz turned to what he thought was a new “super-search engine” (his words) he had heard about: ChatGPT. He typed questions, and the AI responded with what seemed to Schwartz to be genuine case citations, often peppered with friendly bot chat like “hope that helps!” What could possibly go wrong? A good deal. Because the cases ChatGPT provided Schwartz didn’t actually exist.
On June 8, 2023, the judge held a hearing to determine whether LoDuca, Schwartz, and their firm should be sanctioned.
At this hearing, LoDuca admitted he had neither read the cases cited nor made any legitimate effort to determine if they were real. He argued he had no reason not to rely on the citations Schwartz provided. Schwartz, embarrassed, said he had no reason to believe that ChatGPT wasn’t providing accurate information. Both admitted that, in hindsight, they should have been more skeptical. Counsel for Schwartz argued that lawyers are notoriously bad with technology (personally, I object to this characterization). Throughout the hearing, the packed courtroom gasped.
Cringe-inducing, to be sure. But looking deeper, there’s more to fault here than a tech-challenged attorney blindly relying on some “super search engine” to research case citations. The bigger problem is that, even after Avianca’s lawyers pointed out they couldn’t find any evidence that the cases existed or said what Plaintiff’s lawyer said they said, Plaintiff’s attorneys — LoDuca and Schwartz — persisted in trying to establish that the “cases” they relied on were real despite possessing absolutely no evidence for it. Even after Schwartz couldn’t find the cases through a Google search, neither he nor LoDuca checked the publicly available court records to see if the cases were real. Moreover, they seem to have disregarded some pretty clear signs that the “cases” were, at best, problematic. For example, one case begins as a wrongful death case against an airline and, a paragraph or two later, magically transforms into someone suing because he was inconvenienced when a flight was canceled.
Should the duo and their firm be sanctioned? In general, the standard for sanctions is whether those involved acted in bad faith. Everyone here insisted that their conduct did not meet this standard. Rather, they claimed they were simply mistaken in not knowing how ChatGPT worked or that it couldn’t be trusted.
The judge certainly didn’t seem to see things that way. He was appalled that Schwartz and DoLuca didn’t try to verify (or, apparently, even read) the “cases” they cited. In court, the judge read aloud a few lines from one of the fake opinions, pointing out the text was “legal gibberish.” In addition, while LoDuca, Schwartz and their firm might not have been trying to lie to the court, it’s hard to believe that they fulfilled their obligation to make “an inquiry reasonable under the circumstances,” which is what is required under one of the rules applicable here.
The judge reserved a decision on sanctions, so stay tuned.
