Much ado about copyright infringement
Yesterday, while reading about a promotion Dockers is doing, I saw a familiar company name: Livemercial. Being that I recently covered the online ad firm's acquisition of RecruiTV, I was interested to see what the company was up to.The Levi Strauss-owned brand had launched a user-generated video contest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The contest prompted viewers to create and submit their own "livemercials" for Dockers brand pants. Viewers can watch the Mixercast-powered videos and vote for their favorite on NBC's site. Wait. Mixercast? What about Livemercial?
The company, which has its own streaming video platform, actually has nothing to do with the promotion. And thus, it filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against NBC Universal, Levi Strauss, Draftfcb and Mixercast. Since then, the contest has been dubbed the "Make Your Own Dockers Commercial Contest."
According to Online Media Daily, a Livemercial lawyer said the company may be willing to settle out of court. Time will tell whether this case will ever actually make it in front of a judge. Regardless, the winning entry of the video contest will air on June 13 on the Tonight Show.
