Decision of Note: <B>Court Dismisses Idea Suit over TV 'Idol' Show</B>

Plaintiff Harry Keane Jr. had claimed that he had fulfilled the Lanham Act's interstate commerce requirement in distributing a sales packet in which he sought investors for his project. But the district court noted a discrepancy between how Keane described the sales packet in his complaint and the evidence itself: “Nothing about the substance of this [sales] letter, which lacks any return address, telephone number, or other contact information, suggests that it embodies an attempt to sell an idea to production companies. Instead, it appears to be an effort to get 'sponsorship' from 'business owners' for Keane's company so that Keane could produce 'family musical theatre' in Marshalltown, IA. The letter does not mention a 'sales packet' or allude to any enclosures. … [In any case, s]eeking 'sponsorship' for one's own production and seeking to sell an idea so that others might turn it into a production are two distinct activities.”

The district court went on to note, however, that Keane admitted he hadn't sold his show product, which “alone amounts to a failure to plead the threshold requirement of a Lanham Act cause of action because mere expectation or hope that a mark will be used, ie, attempts at 'promotion and marketing' of an idea under a 'mark,' is insufficient to establish exclusive rights in a mark.” The court added that, “trademarks are devices intended to identify fully developed products and services, not ideas for products or services. … [A]n idea for a television show is neither a product nor a service within the purview of trademark law.”