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Article: Supreme Court Holds That Lanham Act Does Not Protect The Right To Claim Authorship In A Literary Work.
- Article from:
- Mondaq Business Briefing
- Article date:
- June 5, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Mondaq Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Supreme Court has extended its recent trend of interpreting federal trademark protection strictly in light of conflict with copyright and patent laws by holding that Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act does not prevent the unaccredited copying of a creative work that has fallen into the public domain. In Dastar Corp. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Case No. 02-428 (June 2, 2003), the Court held that the phrase "origin" of goods in Section 43(a) refers to the producer of the tangible goods that are offered for sale, and not to the author of an idea, concept or communication embodied in those goods. The proper form of protection to ensure an author's rights is a ...