{"id":20576,"date":"2015-04-22T19:36:36","date_gmt":"2015-04-22T19:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/?p=20576"},"modified":"2015-04-22T19:36:36","modified_gmt":"2015-04-22T19:36:36","slug":"update-from-the-limitless-world-of-left-shark-ip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/update-from-the-limitless-world-of-left-shark-ip","title":{"rendered":"Update from the Limitless World of Left Shark IP"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Left<\/a>

Left Shark by Fernando Sosa<\/p><\/div>\n

Many of you will likely remember that shortly after the Super Bowl there was a bit of a thing<\/a> here on Shapeways in connection with a model of Left Shark. \u00a0To briefly review and condense the timeline: person awkwardly dancing inside shark costume during the halftime show rockets to internet fame<\/a>. \u00a0Designer Fernando Sosa creates 3D model of the newly christened \u201cLeft Shark\u201d and starts selling it on Shapeways<\/a>. \u00a0Katy Perry\u2019s lawyers send Shapeways a nastygram<\/a> asserting rights in Left Shark. \u00a0Fernando Sosa responds<\/a>, questioning if Katy Perry has any rights in Left Shark at all. \u00a0Left Shark makes its triumphant return<\/a> to Shapeways. \u00a0(In a B story that foreshadows today\u2019s news, Katy Perry then uses Sosa\u2019s Left Shark as part of her trademark application<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Today the Left Shark IP story that never ends added a new chapter. \u00a0As was widely reported<\/a>, Katy Perry\u2019s application to register the Left Shark costume as a trademark was denied<\/a> by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). \u00a0What does this actually mean?<\/p>\n

As attorney Mark H. Jaffe (who has been all over the trademark angle of this story on twitter) reminded us this morning<\/a>, this refusal by the PTO is an initial refusal. That means that Katy Perry still has an opportunity to respond, and to modify her application in order to improve its chances of being approved.<\/p>\n

Another thing to keep in mind is that trademark is different from copyright. \u00a0Trademark is all about helping consumers match a service to a service provider. \u00a0That means that a big part of getting a trademark is showing that people use it to identify your services or goods, and to distinguish them from other services or goods in the marketplace.<\/p>\n

Enough with the background – what actually happened?<\/p>\n

Katy Perry (well, Katy Perry\u2019s company Killer Queen LLC) applied to use the Left Shark costume as a trademark to identify Katy Perry-related goods and services in the marketplace. \u00a0In refusing the application<\/a>, the examiner essentially found that Left Shark does not identify Katy Perry\u2019s \u201cmusical or dance performances\u201d in the marketplace. \u00a0Essentially, the examiner found that Left Shark represents Left Shark and not Katy Perry to consumers. \u00a0When people see Left Shark figurines, or Left Shark on cell phone covers, mugs, and sweatshirts, they don\u2019t think \u201cKaty Perry.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0They think \u201cLeft Shark.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now Katy Perry has some time to respond to the PTO for both the costume registration and the words \u201cLeft Shark.\u201d \u00a0Until she does, and until the PTO accepts the marks, Katy Perry does not have a trademark in Left Shark.<\/p>\n

Surely the legal machinations surrounding Left Shark will outlast the half-life of Left Shark\u2019s fame by a few orders of magnitude. \u00a0\u00a0So keep your eyes on the Shapeways blog for all of the latest news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many of you will likely remember that shortly after the Super Bowl there was a bit of a thing here…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":19928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[477],"class_list":["post-20576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-1-whats-hot"],"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/shark.jpg","yoast_head":"\nUpdate from the Limitless World of Left Shark IP - Shapeways Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many of you will likely remember that shortly after the Super Bowl there was a bit of a thing here on Shapeways in connection with a model of Left Shark.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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