First Amendment Trumps Trademark in Call of Duty Case

Straat Tenney, an intellectual property associate in the firm’s New York office, wrote an article about how a California federal court held that Novalogic’s attempt to enjoin Activision from using the phrase “Delta Force” and a Delta Force logo in “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” is barred by the First Amendment in World Trademark Review Daily. In the article, "First Amendment Trumps Trademark in Call of Duty Case," the authors discussed how this decision builds on a line of cases that provide video game companies wide latitude under the First Amendment to use terms which, in other commercial contexts, would rise to the level of infringement under federal law. This article first appeared on WTR Daily, part of World Trademark Review, in July 2013. For further information, please go to www.worldtrademarkreview.com.