Okay, not really.
It’s Friday, and this isn’t strictly about ethics, but like many people I love Left Shark and all he (she?) stands for, so was distraught to learn that Greenberg Traurig as Perry’s counsel is going after someone for making one through 3D printing to sell.
The story, with a link to the demand letter and a photo of the offending “sculpture,” is here.
An interesting analysis would be of who actually owns the copyright, if it was actually or will be soon registered and the impact of layers of rights, and assignments if any.
Someone like a production designer likely came up with the shark concept or was it Perry?, then maybe an artist created a concept sketch of that shark which was likely transformative or inspired by existent images of sharks, ‘toons and photos. Then a costumer likely transformed that concept into a 3d shark suit with transformations natural in interpretation of a drawing to a wearable costume. Then NFL shows it on their copyrighted production/telecast. The 3D model is an interpretation of the wacky dancing left shark. Then the fact that only the left shark was noteworthy for its oddness invites the introduction of parody. And then is raw 3d data the same as expression, or is the image of the printed data the culprit. Who knows this stuff?
I will. I saw that and have had to deal with that issue as an expert a number of times. You have to do assignments right…
Professor, could you please weigh in about patent counsel’s duties when representing a company and a fired employee that refuses to sign an assignment? Look at note 3 in the companion threat concerning conflicts between employers and employees.
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