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Misrepresentation Claim over Song in DVD Is Dismissed

BY Stan Soocher
February 01, 2012

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri dismissed an unusual “misrepresentation-by-implication” claim brought under the Lanham Act. Dutch Jackson IATG LLC v. The Basketball Marketing Co., 4:11-CV-227. In the case, the plaintiffs' composition “I Am the Greatest” had been included in the defendants' DVD AND1' Mixtape' X.

In Dastar Corp. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., 539 U.S. 23 (2003), the U.S. Supreme Court held ' in a Lanham Act case alleging false designation of origin for failure to credit a plaintiff in a product ' that “the phrase 'origin of goods' in the Lanham Act ' refers to the producer of the tangible goods that are offered for sale, and not to the author of any idea, concept, or communication embodied in those goods.”

In Dutch Jackson, District Judge Carol E. Jackson first noted: “This is not an instance of defendants repackaging a 'good' made by plaintiffs as their own because the 'goods' at issue ' defendants' mixtape DVDs ' were undisputedly created and manufactured by defendants. Plaintiffs' song, whether an exact copy or not, is not a distinct tangible good in this instance, but rather an 'idea, concept, or communication embodied in [defendants'] goods.'”

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