Cases concerning disputes over Intellectual Property Rights (IPR’s) have been on the rise since the beginning of the Internet. This is because infringing material can be found fairly easily when someone creates material that infringes the rights of another. It is important to know that copyright law does not protect an idea, a name, an advertising slogan or a title. In these instances, companies need to protect their work through a registered trademark which is filed through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The trademark must be “famous” and “distinctive.” In order to win a case over trademark infringement, a company must show that the infringer’s trademark causes “a likelihood of confusion” in the public eye and/or a likelihood of damage to the value or goodwill of the original trademark.

In November of 2007, Evel Knievel had settled a trademark infringement case with rapper Kanye West for a stunt he pulled in his 2006 “Touch the Sky” video. His video features Kanye as a daredevil named “Kanyevel,” who achieves an impressive stunt jump over the Grand Canyon which brings to mind Knievel’s unsuccessful jump in 1974 in Idaho over the Snake River Canyon. In the video, Kanye is wearing the trademark Knievel jumpsuit with “Evel Kanyevel” written across the back. Knievel views the video as ‘vulgar and offensive’ and accused the rapper of using his image to “promote filth to the world,” which damages his reputation and the value of this trademark.

This case goes even deeper because in the suit, Knievel sues AOL, labeling the internet provider as a defendant because the “use of AOL’s own search engine for a video of ‘Evel Knievel’ returned the infringing music video as the second ‘hit’ generated by the search.” After AOL received the suit, they removed the music video that they appeared to have hosted although it still comes up hosted other places in their web based search results.

Intellectual property is owned by its creator or a party that purchased its rights. Ownership of Intellectual property is similar to ownership of other forms of property, in which they have the right to exclude others from infringing or taking their property. IP owners can also license, sell or will the copyright or trademark, just like a homeowner can lease, sell or transfer the home through a will or deed.

A potential trademark infringer is any person that uses a trademark in any way that is “likely to cause confusion” or “dilute the marks meaning.” There are many factors the courts analyze in determining the likelihood of confusion, such as the (1)relatedness of the goods or services, (2)closeness of the appearance, meaning or sound of the conflicting marks, (3) the channels of commerce in which the marks are sold; and (4)the sophistication of the purchasers of the goods or services. If trademark infringement is found by the courts, the trademark owner can obtain a permanent injunction that prohibits the infringer from using the mark or any mark that is confusingly similar to the trademark owner’s mark. The trademark owner may also receive monetary damages for compensation, which can be increased up to three times if it is found the infringer was willful.