August 2016

Back in 1856, Thomas Burberry established the Burberry brand when he began selling women’s luxury clothing and accessories. Today, Burberry Group Inc. is a multi-million dollar, multi-national corporation with over 10,000 employees and a strong, luxury brand that includes eyeglasses and cosmetics. Burberry promotes a checked pattern that is popular in carpeting and is referred to as "Burberry". The company has an equestrian logo that is prominently marked with a “®” to show it is a registered trademark.

The property located at 333 North Dearborn began its life as the House of Blue Hotels. No, we are not kidding. It later was renamed the Hotel Sax. No, we are not kidding. In 2014 it became the Hotel Chicago. That is until Joe Perillo, a Chicago car dealer and entrepreneur, opened a hotel at 1622 West Jackson that he also calls the Hotel Chicago. Not surprisingly, he is now facing a trademark infringement lawsuit by the owners of the original Hotel Chicago.

Earlier this year, the song “Happy Birthday to You” lost its copyright protection. Attorney Mark Rifkin represented a class action lawsuit against Warner/Chappell Music (formed in 1929 with a merger of Chappell Brothers and Warner Brothers, the movie studio) claiming that the song was not entitled to the Copyright that Warner/Chappell had on the song.

Warner/Chappell lost, and lost big – to the tune of $14 million. It appears that Mark Rifkin, Esq., however, did pretty well. The court just awarded him $4.6 million for his services.