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Pastimes : Business Wire Falls for April Fools Prank, Sues FBNers -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter V who wrote (3154)	7/7/1999 1:47:00 PM
From: Bill Ulrich	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3795

Have you ever heard of this "Velvet Elvis" case? It sounds interesting, but I don't know much about it. From our Motion To Strike: webnode.com “…there was no likelihood of confusion. Likelihood of confusion requires the probability of confusion. As the Court stated in Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. v. Capece, 141 F.3d 188 (5th Cir. 1998) (the “Velvet Elvis” case): Likelihood of confusion is synonymous with a probability of confusion, which is more than a mere possibility of confusion. See Blue Bell Bio-Med. v. Cin-Bad, Inc., 864 F.2d 1253, 1260 (5th Cir. 1989); see also 3 J. Thomas McCarthy, McCarthy on Trademarks and Unfair Competition § 23:3 (4th ed. 1997). [Id. at 193]… webnode.com …However, Business Wire distributes thousands upon thousands of press releases regarding companies (as do other press-release distributors). No reasonable person believes that these companies are somehow connected with Business Wire simply because the “Business Wire” byline appears on them. As the Ninth Circuit remarked in New Kids on the Block v. News America Publishing, 971 F.2d 303, 307 (9th Cir. 1992): Common sense suggests (consistent with the record here) that a viewer who sees those words flash upon the screen will believe simply that Channel 5 will show, or is showing, or has shown, the marathon, not that Channel 5 has some special approval from the to do so.” Business Wire's claim regarding the defendants' change of the byline from “Business Wire” to “Bidness Wire,” is even more tenuous, because “Bidness Wire” is clearly parody. As the Court stated in Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. v. Capece, 141 F.3d 188 (5th Cir. 1998) (the “Velvet Elvis” case): “Parody is one such other relevant factor that a court may consider in a likelihood-of-confusion analysis.” webnode.com “Use of the byline “Bidness Wire”—which is obviously an intentional spoof rather than a typographical error concerning “Business Wire”--does not create the required probability of confusion between Business Wire and the Webnode site.”