Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, SUPREME COURT DOCKET: Recent decisions, cases, and petitions pending High Court review , (Sep 9, 2015)
By Greg Hammond, J.D.
This Antitrust Law Daily feature presents a chart highlighting the decisions, arguments, briefs, and petitions on antitrust and trade regulation issues before the 2015 Term of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Currently, there are 12 antitrust and trade regulation cases that are awaiting Supreme Court review. Two cases, Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez (Dkt. 14-857) and DIRECTV, Inc. v. Imburgia (Dkt. 14-462), were granted review during the 2014 Term. The remaining ten cases await determination on whether the Court will grant review or not.
In A.V.E.L.A., Inc. v. Fifty-Six Hope Road Music, Ltd., A.V.E.L.A.—a company that allegedly enhanced and refurbished for use a variety of merchandise containing copyrighted and public domain images of Bob Marley—has challenged a Ninth Circuit order denying A.V.E.L.A.’s post-trial motion for judgment as a matter of law on a false endorsement claim. The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco determined that the defendants violated the Lanham Act because A.V.E.L.A. and others used Marley’s image on their t-shirts and other merchandise, in a manner likely to cause confusion as to plaintiffs’ sponsorship or approval of the t-shirts and merchandise. A.V.E.L.A. asks: (1) does Lanham Act § 43(a) protect a deceased celebrity’s persona-successor without it showing that the celebrity’s persona acquired secondary meaning so that it identifies the persona-successor as the source of sponsorship or approval? (2) Does a Plaintiff satisfy 43(a)’s “consumer confusion” requirement even without evidence that its sponsorship or approval would have any consequence to purchasers?
For details about these and other petitions and cases pending before the Supreme Court, please consult the chart of antitrust and trade regulation cases awaiting decision in the 2015 term. Issued opinions, granted petitions, pending petitions, and denied petitions are listed separately, along with a summary of the questions presented and the current status of each case.
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