Trademark Infringement Threat Letters Spoil Children's Birthday Fun

Trademark infringement rains on children's birthday parties -- baltimoresun.com

In planning birthday parties for their children, parents are facing stumbling blocks that include trademark infringement.

For children's parties, many companies around the country provide
costumed characters popular with kids -- characters like Dora the
Explorer, Bob the Builder and Hannah Montana.
In recent years, corporations that own the rights to some of the more
popular characters, companies that include Marvel Entertainment Inc., Scholastic Inc.,
and HIT Entertainment, have sent cease-and-desist letters, threatened
lawsuits and in some cases received settlements from companies that
market unauthorized character impersonators.

The threats rattle the costume industry. Some companies hire lawyers to
advise them on how to stay out of trouble and remain in business.
Others are now commissioning costumes that only slightly resemble
characters owned by media companies. They have names like "Big Red
Tickle Monster," instead of Elmo, and "Explorer Girl with Backpack,"
rather than Dora.

Leslie Ann Hooker, a Fort Lauderdale
costume-company owner, thought she had found a way to run her business
without running into trouble. "I try to make my costumes look 40
percent different," she said early this month, adding that she didn't
explicitly offer trademarked characters: "I don't have SpongeBob. I
have SquishyGuy."

The amount of money which is being made by the costume and event industry is staggering.  Gag gift companies and others catering to these types of events apparently feel persecuted as a result of the fact that they are precluded from offering merchandise, including costumes, that look just like SpongeBob.  The costume industry appears to make a diligent effort to create dissimilarities between their costumes and the characters’ which the children expect to show up at the door.  Unless they license the costumes or other merchandise from the actual trademark holder, they have no right to profit off of those marks.  The trademark counterfeit industry is huge and, with the advent of the internet, growing at an exponential rate.  However, counterfeit merchandise includes more than just copycat watches in New York.  You only need to go as far as your local costume and party goods supply shop to see trademark infringement in your own back yard.

Comments

[Enforcement of trademark rights]

Are there no limits to enforcement of trademark rights? It seems there ought be an exemption for anything having to do with children :-)