joegratz.net

Pearson Education, the current owner of the copyrights in the Dick and Jane books filed suit against the authors and publishers of Yiddish with Dick and Jane, a parody in which the very goyish Dick and Jane encounter situations that lead them to learn common Yiddish phrases. (The flash movie promoting the book is superb.)

While details are somewhat sketchy and the complaint hasn’t been made public, it appears Pearson is suing for copyright and trademark infringement. The defendants seem very likely to raise parody defenses to both claims; indeed, the flash movie has recently been updated to include numerous notices of parody and disclaimers of affiliation with Pearson.

Pearson (a unit of Addison-Wesley) has apparently been defending their trademark rights in the phrase “Dick and Jane” successfully so far. A cursory look at trademark filings shows that a company marketing “Dick N’ Jane” condoms since 1987 transferred their trademark registration for the name to Addison-Wesley in 2003. (It’s registration number 2733606, if you want to look.)

Since the first Dick and Jane book was published in 1930, the characters would have entered the public domain at the end of this year if it weren’t for the 1998 copyright term extension. Right now, the first Dick and Jane book will be protected by copyright until 2025.

(Link credit: Mom)