In 1999, Kieron Dwyer created a
modified Starbucks logo that got him a lot of attention. It was dubbed,
"Consumer Whore." In 2000, a year after Dwyer made comic books,
t-shirts, and stickers with his version of the Starbucks logo, the company sued
him, obtaining an injunction that prevented Dwyer from using the parody until
the case was scheduled to go to court over a year later. When the case was
finally settled, Dwyer was allowed to continue displaying his logo but only in
extremely limited circumstances. No more comic books, t-shirts, or stickers: he
may post the image on the web but not on his own website - nor may he link from
his website to any other sites that show the parody. In short, Dwyer is
permitted to use the logo as long as Starbucks can be confident that no one
will see it.
There have been a couple of cases
along similar lines that have gone to the Supreme Court since then that have
been won. But during the settlement, even the judge said, "They can
outspend you and that’s what it comes down to". And that was probably the
most illuminating and disheartening part of the process, and that’s the lesson
for the artist its all about money."
From: http://www.stretcher.org/reviews/images/2004/illegal_art/dwyer.htm (21/03/2012)
I covered this briefly in my blog, it is all about money unfortunately, it would be laughable if it wasn't so infuriating that the only reason they bothered to do this is because they could afford to; I'm not sure how much of a threat this parody is especially as it was never really used commercially (in the same respect of the Starbucks logo).
ReplyDeleteStarbucks are a well known corporate bully when it comes to infringement case, often picking on the 'small guy' that have no real threat to a corporation as big as theirs, take a look at these cases, the Sambucks one is quite interesting:
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/GiveMeABreak/story?id=1390867#.T2dBI2WAEb4
http://www.trademarkattorneys.com/starbucks-burned-again-in-trademark-infringement-case
http://cbldf.org/about-us/case-files/dwyer/