September 14, 2005

A Homey Prayer Companion*

Homey the clown
Don't mess around
Even though the Man
Try to keep him down
One day Homey will break all the chains and crush the insignificant masses who dare to parody his radio show and media conglomerate rather than just acquire a sense of humor and let it go and be forgotten which would be the rational course of action for someone who can only damage his public reputation by bullying bloggers with ridiculous charges of trademark infringement
Then he'll fly away
But until that day
Homey don't play.

*Not associated with Prairie Home Productions, Prairie Home Companion, Commie Home Prairieonions, Garrison Keillor, Ruby Keeler, Wee Willie Keeler, Damon Wayans, Anyother Wayans, National Public Radio, Radio Marti, Radio Free Europe, or the Lake Wobegone Rod & Gun Club.

Posted by Ken S at September 14, 2005 09:24 AM | TrackBack (0) |
Comments

Very good.

Posted by: Timmer at September 14, 2005 10:26 AM

First things first: I don't claim to be an IP attorney, so I probably have no idea what I'm talking about.

That said, my limited understanding is that a trademark-holder has to zealously attempt to defend the exclusivity of their mark, or else other parties can contend that it's public domain, even in situations like this. Parody is, of course, protected by the First Amendment, but down the line someone who really DID want to confuse the public could assert that by not defending against this, Keillor was failing to guard his trademark rights and had thus reliquished them. That's the argument, anyway, and regardless of how fucking stupid it sounds, there may be some validity to it. Not knowing this area of law, I can't really say without doing some research on it, which I have no plans to do.

Posted by: Dave J at September 14, 2005 10:56 AM

Interesting point, Dave. I should think, though, that courts would recognize that not taking action against obvious (and protected) parody should not be construed as failure to zealously attempt to defend. But then, I've long since given up on courts using common sense.

Posted by: Ken Summers at September 14, 2005 11:05 AM