Kareem Abdul-Jabbar v. General Motors Corporation;

This paper will discuss the legal issues in the case, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar v. General Motors Corporation; Leo Burnett Company, Inc. The first part of the paper will briefly recount the facts in the case. The second part will look at the issues under Section 43 of the Lanham Act pertaining to "the use of any symbol or device which is likely to deceive consumers as to the association, sponsorship, or approval of goods or services by another person." The third part of the paper will discuss the issues under California's statutory and common law right of publicity.

During the 1993 NCAA men's basketball tournament, General Motors aired a television commercial in which a disembodied voice asked, "How 'bout some trivia?" The question was followed by the appearance of a screen bearing the printed words, "You're talking to the Champ." The voice then asked, "Who holds the record for being voted the most outstanding player of this tournament?" In the screen appeared the printed words, "Lew Alcindor, UCLA, '67, '68, '69." The voice then asked, "Has any car made the 'Consumer Digest's Best Buy' list more than once? [and responds:] The Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight has." Then followed a seven-second film clip of the car, with its price. During this clip, the voice said, "In fact, it's made that list three years in a row. And now you can get this Eighty-Eight special e

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are no precedents concerning the "abandonment" of birth names for Lanham Act purposes. The court may have been better advised to restrict the scope of the Lanham Act in an area where it is silent and to rely upon California common and statutory law as the right of publicity (discussed below). The court may have foreseen a problem in future cases arising in states which do not have such statutory or common law rights. Fair Use The appellate court noted that a fair use defense is available "where the mark is used only 'to describe the goods or services of [a] party, or their geographic origin.'" The court said that this defense is available if three requirements are met. First, the product or service at issue must not be readily identifiable without the use of the trademark. Second, "only so much of the mark or marks may be used as is reasonably necessary to identify the product or service." Third, the user must not do anything that would, in conjunction with the mark, suggest sponsorship or endorsement by the trademark holder. In New Kids, the court held that the newspaper which had used the name of the band in a poll of readers met these requirements, since the newspaper had only used the name of the band to identify
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1756
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)