Drink to me only with thine eyes

A week or chagall.jpgso ago it was the sad story of Jimi Hendrix on the bottle. Now the TTABlog, which reports on decisions of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, reports on another famous – dead – guy – as – booze – trademark case:

Applicant Anatoliy Bondarchuk failed to fend off a petition for cancellation of his registration of the mark MARC CHAGALL for vodka. The Board not surprisingly found that the mark creates a false suggestion of a connection with the painter Marc Chagall, in violation of Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, and it therefore sustained the petition.

chagall2.jpg

The irony is that Chagall’s paintings always struck me as the kind of thing you would, indeed, find at the bottom of a bottle of vodka. Animals and people getting just a little too close… fowl showing up in the most inappropriate places … lots of questionable aloofness — flying around in the air, that is.

I always thought these paintings looked as if Chagall had stayed for one l’chaim too many. Or that he had a very odd family, indeed. Maybe so — but it’s not for Anatoliy Bondarchuk to profit from it, and so too says the TTAB.

No Responses to “Drink to me only with thine eyes”

  1. craig mclaughlin Says:

    I always associated Chagall more with certain types of prescription cough syrup than vodka. Vodka drinkers are more Andy Warhol-ish, I think.


  2. Ron Coleman Says:

    LOL


  • View Ron Coleman's profile on LinkedIn


  • RSS LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION® blog

    • Tens years of Overlawyering
      Overlawyered turns 10.  Congratulations!  There was really blogging ten years ago? I didn’t miss the anniversary.  I just didn’t want to be accused of cadging for a link. […]
    • Holding Caulfield (corrected)
      I could have linked to a million stories on this, but Publishers Weekly seems appropriate: Finding that author J.D. Salinger is “likely to succeed on the merits of its copyright case,” a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction late on Wednesday afternoon, barring the publication of what Salinger’s attorneys called an unauthorized sequel to The Catcher […]
    • He just bought it like that
      Impulse buying, King of Pop style: Branca had a surprise for Jackson. The attorney said casually, ‘By the way, the ATV catalogue is available.’ Jackson looked puzzled. Branca added teasingly, ‘It includes a few things you might be interested in.’ ‘Like what?’ Jackson asked. ‘Northern Songs,’ Branca replied. Jackson recognized that name. ‘You mean the Norther […]
    • Royal mess
      Burger King’s trademark place is kind of funny.   If you Google His Majesty’s Monicker along with the word TRADEMARK, you get this link, which not only asserts, naturally, his royal BURGER KING® registered mark, but the far more dubious BK® mark down at the bottom, yet not at all (on that page) the ancient [...] […]
    • When you’re a hammer
      The whole world is a nail. Now Marty Schwimmer isn’t a hammer, because he does trademarks and not patents, see.  So this post connecting Michael Jackson and intellectual property is not proof that Michael Jackson’s death is a nail! (Single-glove-tip on the actual patent to Andie Schwartz!) […]
  • Likelihood of Exposure

    Evening alight

    Storming over from Jersey

    The assault

    After the deluge

    Calm in the west

    Another picture of 34th Street

    Snatch of convergence

    Rolex Building

    More Photos
  • eXTReMe Tracker