Judge refuses to throw out Dr Seuss estate’s battle with Star Trek writer
A US judge has refused to dismiss a copyright and trademark infringement case brought against David Gerrold, a Star Trek writer, by the estate of late children’s author Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known by his pseudonym Dr Seuss.
District Judge Janis Sammartino at the US District Court for the Southern District of California rejected Gerrold’s motion for dismissal of the clash over a comic book described as a mashup of Star Trek and works by Dr Seuss, on Thursday, December 7.
The dispute began in November 2016 when Dr Seuss Enterprises sued ComicMix, its co-founder Glenn Hauman, Gerrold (the co-author of the comic) and Ty Templeton (the comic’s illustrator) for copyright and trademark infringement, and unfair competition.
Gerrold is probably best known for writing the Star Trek episode “The Trouble With Tribbles”.
The dispute centres on the comic “Oh, The Places You’ll Boldly Go!” which, according to Dr Seuss Enterprises, infringes Dr Seuss’s works “by using innumerable copyrighted elements of several well-known Dr Seuss works, including the works’ settings, illustrations, characters, prose, and themes”.
The estate added that it is the owner of the following trademarks: the book title ‘Oh, The Places You’ll Go!’; the stylised font used throughout the Dr Seuss books; and the unique illustration style of the characters and backgrounds found throughout the books.
Dr Seuss’s estate claimed that the comic “purports to be an amalgamation of the Dr Seuss works and certain characters, imagery, and other elements from Star Trek”.
In June this year, Sammartino partially granted ComicMix’s motion to dismiss the dispute.
She dismissed the trademark element of the complaint under the doctrine of nominative fair use, but allowed the copyright argument. Sammartino also gave the estate two weeks to file an amended complaint.
The judge considered the amended complaint and allowed all claims to go forward in the case, including claims for unfair competition and trademark.
Dr Seuss Enterprises alleged trademark infringement of the font used for the comic book title, claiming it was similar to the font used in the Dr Seuss books.
The judge agreed, stating that defendants not only use the words ‘Oh! The Places You'll Go’ in the title of the comic but also used the exact font.
“The look of the lettering is unquestionably identical on both books, down to the shape of the exclamation point,” said Sammartino.
She added: “The court finds it was unnecessary to use the distinctive font as used in the ‘Go!’ comic to communicate their message. The court concludes defendants have not satisfied this nominative fair use factor.”
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