T-shirt designers are going to court to defend their First Amendment and intellectual property rights. One case pits designer Skylar Shatz against Marlboro who claims that shirt with a facsimile of the cigarette package with the word “Death” replacing the brand name was a trademark infringement. Another designer, Dan McCall, prevailed in cases against the National Security Agency and Homeland Security over garments that satirized the agencies. (Voice of American, June 20, 2014, by Jim Randle)
McCall sued last year, the complaint holding that there was no reasonable grounds for the government’s threats against him. “[The] use of images of the NSA and DHS seals, whether unaltered but in combination with critical text, or altered in parodic form, did not create any likelihood of confusion about the source or sponsorship of the materials on which they were available to be printed. No reasonable viewer is likely to believe that any of the materials is affiliated with or sponsored by defendants. Nor were the seals affixed to the items to be sold with any fraudulent intent,” the complaint read. Steve Watson in (Prisonplanet.com, October 30, 2013, dealt some harsh criticism of the government for its assault on free speech, “The Obama administration is increasingly characterizing copyright infringement as terrorism, with SWAT teams now being sent out to deal with alleged copyright infringers. Critics have noted that the process is about creating a history of case law to establish the precedent of stamping out free speech via copyright claims.”