{"id":66873,"date":"2022-08-31T09:00:47","date_gmt":"2022-08-31T09:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=66873"},"modified":"2022-08-31T09:00:47","modified_gmt":"2022-08-31T09:00:47","slug":"paramount-uses-copyright-claims-board-to-protect-coming-to-americas-big-mick-burger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=66873","title":{"rendered":"Paramount Uses Copyright Claims Board to Protect Coming to America\u2019s \u201cBig Mick\u201d Burger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"eddyIn June, the US Copyright Claims Board was launched<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Through this venue<\/a>, hosted at the US Copyright Office, rightsholders can try to recoup alleged damages outside the federal court system.<\/p>\n

Just over a hundred cases have been filed thus far, mostly by smaller independent creators, but some large companies have found their way<\/a> to the board as well. <\/p>\n

McDowell\u2019s Copyright Troubles<\/h2>\n

Late last week, Paramount Pictures filed a claim<\/a> against JMC Pop Ups, which is known for its pop-up restaurants carrying movie or TV show themes. This includes a McDowell\u2019s, modeled after the restaurant prominently featured in \u201cComing to America.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the movie, McDowell\u2019s ran into copyright issues due to its similarities with the multi-billion dollar McDonald\u2019s franchise. In this case, however, Paramount Pictures wants to protect the McDowell\u2019s brand against an external threat.<\/p>\n

According to the claim, the restaurant copied a wide variety of copyrighted materials without permission.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn creating and marketing the Infringing Restaurant, JMC copied countless copyrighted materials from the works, including but not limited to the menu, the character names and likenesses, and the recreations of well-known McDowell\u2019s restaurant from the Coming to America universe.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecifically, the Infringing Restaurant\u2019s menu used numerous well-known indicia of the Works, including the \u2018Big Mick\u2019 with a \u2018non-seed bun\u2019,\u201d the movie studio adds in its complaint. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

From the Menu<\/strong><\/center>
\"mc<\/center><\/p>\n

Advance Warnings<\/h2>\n

The legal action shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise to JMC Pop Ups. For more than a year, Paramount\u2019s lawyers have repeatedly reached out to the company, asking it to cease the allegedly infringing activity. <\/p>\n

The restaurant owners didn\u2019t believe that they had infringed Paramount\u2019s rights. Instead, they announced plans to open a new McDowell\u2019s<\/a> in Springfield from May 20 to June 5. That announcement was a step too far for Paramount. <\/p>\n

After JMC failed to confirm that the event would be canceled, Paramount decided to take the matter to the Copyright Claims Board. The choice of venue shows that the movie studio is mostly concerned about stopping the infringements, as available damages are limited. <\/p>\n

Paramount notes that the pop-up McDowell\u2019s misleads the public, who may think that it\u2019s an official Hollywood-backed venture, which it isn\u2019t. This is all the more problematic because the food isn\u2019t that great, according to some reviewers.<\/p>\n

Food Discomfort?<\/h2>\n

\u201cJMC misused Paramount Pictures\u2019 intellectual property to deceive parents and children into believing that the Infringing Restaurant is affiliated with, or authorized by, Paramount Pictures.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cTo make matters worse, the quality of the food is in serious question, as consumers have reported feeling discomfort after eating at the Infringing Restaurant,\u201d Paramount Pictures adds.<\/p>\n

Through the Copyright Claims Coard, the movie studio requests an award of $30,000 in statutory damages, the maximum available. In addition, it hopes to prevent any further infringements. <\/p>\n

\u2018Creative Celebration\u2019<\/h2>\n

Attorney John Powell, who represents the restaurant, still believes that McDowell\u2019s didn\u2019t infringe on Paramount\u2019s copyrights and trademarks. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe McDowell\u2019s pop-up was a creative celebration of a fake restaurant,\u201d the lawyer told the WSJ<\/a>, adding that \u201cJMC is disappointed by Paramount\u2019s heavy-handed response to fans of its films.\u201d<\/p>\n

Participation in the Copyright Claims Board proceeding is not mandatory. JMC has the right to opt-out if it wishes to do so. Should that happen, Paramount can still take the matter to federal court where statutory copyright damages can reach $150,000 per work and legal fees are much higher. <\/p>\n

From: TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\n

Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In June, the US Copyright Claims Board was launched. Through this venue, hosted at the US Copyright Office, rightsholders can try to recoup alleged damages outside the federal court system. Just over a hundred cases have been filed thus far, mostly by smaller independent creators, but some large companies have found their way to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66874,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-torrent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/66874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}