More on parody

At the risk of stretching our parody thread to the breaking point, I wonder if anyone else has pondered an issue that came to mind as I was reviewing the state of parody/satire for a client.

If the "target parody" category is really valid and exclusive for all the related IP contexts, that is copyright, trademark and right-o-publicity, where does this leave female impersonators? Where the objective of a presentation is to render an imitation as faithfully as possible, wouldn't this automatically trigger the wrath of the Dr. Seuss court?

I mention female impersonators rather than mimics in general, because it seems to me that for the former accuracy is more the goal than caricature. One might, I suppose, argue that the implicit commentary is that "men make better women than women do," or some such; but to say that is to highlight the "weapon" nature of the imitation as against the "target parody" element.

In the Koons case it was clear that the artistic nature of the usage was no protection against infringement liability (as if that needed to be clarified); but where does this stand in ROP law, where the usage has to be "in trade" or words to that effect? Obviously, people make money from arts and entertainment (sure, most don't make much, but hey).

• Vance R. Koven * phone: 617-482-3852 *
• attorney at law * fax: 617-482-4972 *
• 20 Park Plaza Ste. 633 * net: vrkoven[_at_]world.std.com *
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