Paging The Fremantle Lawyers

[dm]

General Mills Cereals is doing some sort of cash giveaway promotion which uses a font that looks suspiciously like the Price is Right logo font and a dollar sign that looks suspiciously like... you know where this is going, right? They are giving the illusion of being somehow tied into Price is Right, and they clearly aren't.

This isn't like Grand Theft Auto using the Price font, the fact that they're using Price's dollar sign pushes this into blatant infringement.

Do Fremantle's lawyers even eat cereal? You'd think they eat trademark infringers for breakfast...

Take a bite out of crime!

[Axl]

For what it's worth, this wouldn't really be a case of trademark infringement, since TPiR doesn't own the font and General Mills isn't using it for a game show.

The legal issue is "appropriation."  As Dave noted, it's basically trying to leave the impression that you're associated with or endorsed by some other entity when that's not really the case.

[PIR85]

I've seen other shows using the font (namely, "Yo Momma" from MTV) and even Stan Olsen Hyundai in Nebraska uses the font on billboards next to the interstate.  I never thought that this was trademark infringement just by using the same font.

[Vexorg]

I saw this today (at Target), and it's pretty blatant.  I took a photo:



I seriously doubt that the font would be an issue, but I'm pretty sure the dollar sign is trademarked, and would be considered infringement.

[junkaholic95]

The dollar sign is part of the font but one must wonder if it is indeed trademarked.  Still, I think General Mills should have thought a little harder about this one.

[Casey]

You all must think General Mills is stupid.  If there were any sort of copyright issue involved with the font or the dollar sign, don't you think they would have obtained permission to use it before using it?  Especially given the very predominate display?

[Axl]

CaseyGV wrote:
You all must think General Mills is stupid.  If there were any sort of copyright issue involved with the font or the dollar sign, don't you think they would have obtained permission to use it before using it?

New Coke, the dot-com bubble, stealing "Coming to America" from Art Buchwald... history is filled with big corporations making stupid decisions in situations where they should have known better.

[Casey]

Axl wrote:
New Coke, the dot-com bubble, stealing "Coming to America" from Art Buchwald... history is filled with big corporations making stupid decisions in situations where they should have known better.

But none of these are valid comparisons to the issue being discussed.

[SteveGavazzi]

CaseyGV wrote:

Axl wrote:

New Coke, the dot-com bubble, stealing "Coming to America" from Art Buchwald... history is filled with big corporations making stupid decisions in situations where they should have known better.

But none of these are valid comparisons to the issue being discussed.

They are if General Mills needed permission to use the logo and didn't get it.

[price_authority]

The Price Is Right logo (including the dollar sign) is a registered trademark:

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=p9or2k.2.9

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=p9or2k.2.3

D'oh!

[Casey]

SteveGavazzi wrote:
They are if General Mills needed permission to use the logo and didn't get it.

My point is - comparing failed products to unlawful use of someone else's copyrighted material isn't a valid comparison.  Both are stupid yes, but each have far different consequences.

I still think it's amusing that people assume that General Mills automatically infringed on Fremantle's copyright without having any proof to back it up.  I can't prove they didn't, but, innocent until proven guilty...

[Axl]

CaseyGV wrote:
My point is - comparing failed products to unlawful use of someone else's copyrighted material isn't a valid comparison.  Both are stupid yes, but each have far different consequences.

Okay, then... forget about those first two I mentioned, but leave in Buchwald and add on Apple v. Apple, the "Ghostbusters" case, and a multitude of others.  Sheesh.  


True, we don't know whether General Mills infringed anything, or whether that display was even their idea.  (It was probably their advertising agency.)  But the only other real alternative was that they licensed the right to make a display with a vague similarity to the Price is Right trade dress, but without actually referencing The Price is Right in any way.  That seems rather unlikely.

[pricefan3376]

The logo may be a trademark, but what about the font?

[Sciontist]

Here is a closer look at some elements from the General Mills website:
newbielink:http://generalmills.eprize.net/cashforclass/ [nonactive]

This looks like blatant copying... i.e. the dollar sign and font are almost exactly the same.  Definitely not an honest mistake.
Somebody get the lawyers on the phone!