Cartoonist Kieron Dwyer Sued By Starbucks

[Kire]

Cartoonist Kieron Dwyer Sued By Starbucks

At a meeting during Comic-Con International, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Board of Directors voted to support cartoonist Kieron Dwyer's defense of a suit brought against him by the Starbucks Corporation (Starbucks v. Dwyer, C00 1499). Starbucks is suing Dwyer for copyright and trademark infringement of its "mermaid" logo, a parody of which appeared on the cover of Dwyer's Lowest Common Denominator #0. Dwyer contends that his drawing is a legitimate parody and, as such, protected by the First Amendment.

In addition to LCD #0, Dwyer also used the parody on t-shirts, stickers, and coffee mugs, which he sold at comic conventions and through his Lowest Common Denominator website (www.lcdcomic.com). It's through the web that Starbucks attorneys discovered Dwyer's parody. Shortly afterwards, Starbucks filed for a restraining order which would have compelled Dwyer to surrender all items bearing the parody logo to the custody of the court. Starbucks also demanded that Dwyer remove the parody logo from his website. Curiously, their initial brief did not mention Dwyer's comic book at all-only the ancillary merchandise that made use of LCD's cover.

More: http://www.cbldf.org/pr/001130-starbucks.shtml



Starbucks attorneys made no effort to contact Dwyer prior to slapping him with a lawsuit...

[xultar]

1. Why can't people take a fuckin joke!

[Canuckistanian]

2. This is the reason why they're critcized and parodied

The irony apparently escapes them....

[NV Whino]

3. Looks to me like the cartoonist might win on this one

Starbucks should have done a cease and desist order before suing.

[Book Lover]

4. By only going after ancillary materials,

Starbucks hopes (in my opinion) to safeguard their suit; ancillary materials sold for profit only may be more difficult in court to defend as pure parodical speech. The comic cover itself is far more clearly protected. On the other hand, the logotype is such a clear satire and parody, Starbucks will have to purchase (I mean, hire lawyers to pursuade the court) a pretty narrow favorable decision.

[mongo]

5. Isn't this called

Free-use Parody?

Hope that starbucks lawyer's get slapped with a frivolous lawsuit charge.