Limiting its decision to construction of the phrase "origin of goods," the Court found that no Lanham Act violation occurred when Dastar edited and republished much of the content of out-of-copyright tapes of the "Crusade in Europe" video. Dastar v. Twentieth Century Foxfilm Corp.(2003) The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had found Dastar had "bodily appropriated" the series and engaged in "reverse passing off," affirming an award of twice Dastar's profits to Twentieth Century Fox. The Court reversed, cautioning against misuse or over-extension of trademark and related protections into areas traditionally occupied by patent or copyright.
The Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. §1125(a), allows a tort action to a person injured by another's "false designation of origin" in connection with any goods or services. The Dastar Court found that "the phrase 'origin of goods' is in our view incapable of connoting the person or entity that originated the ideas or communications that 'goods' embody or contain." They dismissed arguments for a different outcome for a "communicative product" valued for its intellectual content rather than physical characteristics, on the grounds that such would cause the Lanham Act to conflict with the law of copyright.
Prior to the June 2 decision in Dastar, Professor Samuelson referenced the case as an opportunity for the Court to add to the constitutional significance of the public domain, on which the Eldred decision was silent, as mentioned in the Unintended Consequences Note: Samuelson: Con Law of IP after Eldred. The Dastar Court referenced Eldred as support for its summation:
From a note at the weblog "Unintended Consequences" at DougSimpson.com
Posted by dougsimpson at August 2, 2003 10:44 AM | TrackBack