For those of us who practice in the wonderful world of trademarks, the phrase “confusingly similar” gets constantly bandied about. And as we advise our clients about what to call their product/film/song, etc. it’s always best to remind them that “confusingly similar” means different things to different people.
Take for example the recent dispute regarding Sesame Street and The Happytime Murders. The Happytime Murders stars Melissa McCarthy and a series of puppets that bring to mind the world of Jim Henson in an R-rated film. The film used the tagline: “No Sesame. All Street.” STX Entertainment, the producer of Happytime were recently hit with a request for a temporary restraining order by Sesame Workshop (owner of the intellectual property behind Sesame Street) based on the alleged trademark infringement of the tagline. Yesterday, the Court ruled in favor of STX by holding there was no likelihood of consumer confusion and the tagline wasn’t confusingly similar to the Sesame Street marks.
For more information, see here.