Virtual Strip Club In GTA Doesn't Violate Trademarks Of Real Strip Club
from the has-rockstar-opened-a-strip-club dept
Against Monopoly points us to a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in a trademark lawsuit that is worth the read, not just for the absurdity of the case, but also for the court's reasoning. The lawsuit involves a strip club in Los Angeles, called The Play Pen, that apparently got pissed off over a strip club found in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. As players of recent GTA's well know, the designers of the game try to make the cities in the game look somewhat realistic (in an extreme manner) compared to the real cities they're supposed to be portraying. They usually change up names just slightly to highlight that it's fictional. Thus, Los Angeles becomes Los Santos and The Play Pen becomes The Pig Pen.
It's already surprising enough that the strip club owners would be upset by this. After all, I would think that being known as the strip club found in GTA might actually drive more business to the club. However, the court reasonably found no trademark infringement and no "unfair competition" as the strip club owners' charged. Beyond the fact that the strip club in the game looks pretty different from the one in real life, the court found the likelihood of confusion to be quite limited:
The San Andreas Game is not complementary to the Play Pen; video games and strip clubs do not go together like a horse and carriage or, perish the thought, love and marriage. Nothing indicates that the buying public would reasonably have believed that ESS produced the video game or, for that matter, that Rockstar operated a strip club. A player can enter the virtual strip club in Los Santos, but ESS has provided no evidence that the setting is anything but generic. It also seems far-fetched that someone playing San Andreas would think ESS had provided whatever expertise, support, or unique strip-club knowledge it possesses to the production of the game. After all, the Game does not revolve around running or patronizing a strip club. Whatever one can do at the Pig Pen seems quite incidental to the overall story of the Game. A reasonable consumer would not think a company that owns one strip club in East Los Angeles, which is not well known to the public at large, also produces a technologically sophisticated video game like San Andreas.That butcher shop line is a classic. If you want to read the entire lawsuit, you can see it here:
Undeterred, ESS also argues that, because players are free to ignore the storyline and spend as much time as they want at the Pig Pen, the Pig Pen can be considered a significant part of the Game, leading to confusion. But fans can spend all nine innings of a baseball game at the hot dog stand; that hardly makes Dodger Stadium a butcher's shop. In other words, the chance to attend a virtual strip club is unambiguously not the main selling point of the Game.
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hahaha
I love it when judges smash the gavel on people's heads that deserve head smashing.
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this article wins the internet.
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Awesome
...the overall story of the Game >> the Game
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The Triangle Club
I thought this GTA strip club logo might be topical:
http://modernclassic.spreadshirt.com/us/US/Shop/Article/Index/article/The-Triangle-Club- 3377666
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Well, the Play Pen got their story and some cheap advertisement on national scale.
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So Cal Clubs
Dirty Dan"s was much better back in the day.
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Publicity
Possible attempt for a streisand effect....
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USCK?
A phrase I never thought I'd read in a lawsuit filing: "unique strip-club knowledge".
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i was really confused
first i tried to get inside the pig pen on my TV, and broke my TV, thanks a lot rockstar games, now i need a new TV.
then i went to the play pen and paid a bunch of money to the strippers and killed one to get my money back and there was all this talk about "murder" and "assault" and "the death penalty". thanks again rockstar games, now i need a lawyer too.
and to top it all off, neither the pig pen, nor the play pen, accept pay pal. it took me an hour to figure out why giving them my email address wasn't enough to solicit a lap dance. it was pretty embarrassing.
there really should be some sort of law to protect people like me from making these kinds of mistakes.
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Yes, but...
While I agree with the judge's decision, I question the ethics of the lawyers who started this case in the first place.
Did the lawyers not know they had no case? If so, then they need to go back to law school and learn about copyrights, trademarks, and so on.
Or did the lawyers take the case just to make some money from the client, without caring if they won the case? If so, isn't that a breach of ethics? Aren't lawyers supposed to tell their client if there they don't have a case?
Either way, when will we put an end to pointless cases like this which just waste the court's time and taxpayers' money?
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Re: i was really confused
There are, they are the ones that allow you to be sectioned.
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WHAT???
A strip club honked at being represented in the virtual world? Are you kidding? Get outa here!
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Most companies pay big $$$ to advertise on a hugely popular game or show...
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Whoever wrote that reasoning behind dismissing the lawsuit, they're a friggin' genius.
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Love the butcher shop analogy!
That should be used in all TM infringement cases
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dua t loz
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usa
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gllogovc
yes gta it's
is gta
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kastrioti
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piriferi
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