Hooray for common sense!
The court doesn't call it fair use, but fundamentally the appearance of a Gottlieb pinball machine in a few minutes of a movie is fair use, IMHO, under principles of both copyright and trademark law. And plaintiff's argument that its product's appearance in a movie starring noted anti-Semite Mel Gibson could harm its business reputation? Don't embarrass yourselves, okay?
And yes, this is a topic I've written about before and will no doubt write about again.
H/t Marty
(You can play the game too - I copied this image from Wikipedia. I'm using it not to suggest sponsorship or affiliation by The Who, but rather to illustrate the term pinball referenced above, in a way that will have "Pinball Wizard" running through your brain for the rest of the day. Oops - I've discussed this concept before as well!)
And yes, this is a topic I've written about before and will no doubt write about again.
H/t Marty
(You can play the game too - I copied this image from Wikipedia. I'm using it not to suggest sponsorship or affiliation by The Who, but rather to illustrate the term pinball referenced above, in a way that will have "Pinball Wizard" running through your brain for the rest of the day. Oops - I've discussed this concept before as well!)
I like this holding because it gives us a solid idea of what constitutes de minimis use of a copyrighted work in a film. If the use is de minimis, the complaint is dismissed and the fair use defense need not be reached. I agree with you that if the use had NOT been found de minimis, it would probably have been found to be fair use. But I'm glad to have a good recent "de minimis" case out there to refer to now.
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Good point - but I think it's also important to view even the de minimis analysis as really boiling down to the idea that the nominative fair use doctrine is at work here and should be elsewhere. I don't understand why you shouldn't be able to capture in a book or movie or whatever vehicle the world as it exists - without having to seek permission or blur out a trademark. I was watching a hideous reality show last night where the water bottle labels were blurred, which drives me bats - if ever there were a place for nominative fair use, it's a reality show!
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