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Dr. Seuss Sues in Sue-ville This Holiday Season

Last Friday, Dr. Seuss Enterprises filed a complaint in California federal court that alleges that ComicMix is violating the intellectual property created by Theodor S. Geisel. At issue is a crowd-funded book project titled Oh, The Places You’ll Boldly Go!

J. Michael Keyes is an intellectual property partner at the international law firm Dorsey & Whitney with extensive trial and litigation experience in cases involving trademarks, copyrights, unfair competition and false advertising. He has offered up a rather fun and unique way of looking at this issue:

 

Dr. Seuss Sues in Sue-ville This Holiday Season

You know Green Eggs and Ham, and the Cat in The Hat,
Horton, the Lorax, and others like that.
But a new book is coming, although now a bit slow,
It’s called “Oh, The Places You’ll Boldly Go!”

Sure it sounds like the book already penned by Doc Seuss,
But it’s not, oh it’s not, an infringer’s on the loose!
Or so claims the estate of the author of Grinch,
Bring on the lawyers, this case is a cinch!

So the lawyers lined up and formed quite a roster,
All hands on deck to take down this imposter.
They filed their suit for the Green Eggs writer,
And sought an injunction to make things a bit brighter.

Who is this villain, this dastardly soul?
Who dares to infringe “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!?”
The main culprit’s a company called ComicMix,
And it’s VP and others are in quite a fix.

It is claimed they have copied a work of great fame,
And created confusion in the market for same.
They may ask, “what’s the problem, say, what the heck?”
“It’s simply a mash-up with a touch of Star Trek.”

“We know about fair use and it’s factors of four,”
“We’re sure to prevail, at the courthouse door.”
But fair use is tricky, as the defendants may see,
It’s not quite as simple as A, B, and C.

Who will prevail, say, who will win?
The defendants’ chances appear quite dim.
An injunction is likely, perhaps damages too,
And fees for the lawyers, after all, they had to sue.

For what appears to be a very good reason,
Dr. Seuss sues in Sue-ville this holiday season.
We will keep you all posted, it should be quite a sight,
Happy holidays to all, and to all a good night!

 

Anthony Zangrillo

Anthony Zangrillo is a third year student at Fordham University School of Law and the Online Editor of the Fordham Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal. He will be joining the Capital Markets group at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP after graduation. While an undergraduate student at NYU, he founded the Motion Picture Club. (http://www.motionpictureclubs.com). You can find him on Twitter at @FordhamIPLJ.