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Copyrightable Karaoke Tracks Not Protected By Trademark Act

BY Judith L. Grubner
September 01, 2016

Slep-Tone Entertainment Corporation and its successor in interest, Phoenix Entertainment Partners, filed more than 150 Lanham Act suits throughout the country. The suits alleged that defendants had committed trademark infringement by making unauthorized copies and performing commercial karaoke files containing Slep-Tone's registered trademark “Sound Choice” and graphically displayed trade dress. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of one of those suits, brought in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois against Basket Case Pub and its president and sole owner, Dannette Rumsey, because the karaoke tracks were not “tangible goods” that the pub had sold in the marketplace as a Slep-Tone product. Phoenix Entertainment Partners, LLC v. Rumsey, __ F.3d __ (7th Cir. 2016).

Case Background

For nearly 30 years, Slep-Tone has produced and distributed 16,500 recorded audio and graphic karaoke tracks intended for use with professional karaoke systems. The audio component is the recorded version of a popular song that omits the lead vocals, and the graphic element displays the lyrics of the song with visual cues such as color coding and various icons, synchronized with the music to aid singers in performing the songs. Slep-Tone claims a trade dress including the typeface, style, and visual arrangement of the song lyrics, a design version of the Sound Choice trademark, and the style of entry cues displayed for the singers to show when they should begin singing. The karaoke tracks are sold to Slep-Tone's customers on compact discs and MP3 media.

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