The 2021 commercial success television show Black Mafia Family “BMF” on STARZ, Lions Gate, produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, has been sued over a trademark infringement case. The lawsuit states Belin has owned the trademark “BMF” rights since 2017, and Belin thinks the show has taken on an “unfair competition and false designation of origin under the Lanham Act.” The legal team defending STARZ and 50 Center filed a motion to dismiss the claim and assert that they are protected under the First Amendment under the Rogers Test.
According to Cornell Law, the Lanham Act “provides for a national system of trademark registration and protects the owner of a federally registered mark against the use of similar marks if such use is likely to result in consumer confusion, or if the dilution of a famous mark is likely to occur.”
Rogers Test is “employed when the allegedly infringing use involves an expressive work. The test is based on the precedence case of Rogers v. Grimaldi and is intended to be used to balance public interest and avoid brand confusion among consumers.”
– Excerpt from an article for Afrotech by Josh Rodgers. Read the full article here.
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