Intellectual Property Insights from Fishman Stewart PLLC
Newsletter – Volume 23, Issue 17
Share on Social
Innovating Barbie: Patents on the Plastic Fashionista
By: Norm K. Freda
The recently released Barbie movie has taken the world by storm, grossing $350 million in the US and $774.5 million worldwide in just ten days. Before Barbie danced her way onto the silver screen, however, she graced the pages of less popular media – the Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, a weekly journal that publishes select portions of patents issued that week.
As the saying goes, you must learn to walk before you can run. Barbie took that saying a step further, or rather a step backward, as she would first need to learn how to stand. Early on, the Barbie doll had trouble standing upright on her own since she wore high heels and stood on her tiptoes. The first Barbie patent filed in 1959, US 3,009,284, sought to address this problem. This patent describes a doll stand that supports a Barbie doll in “a balanced, realistic position.” The stand includes a platform with two pins that are inserted into bores in the Barbie doll’s feet and a stand with a pair of hooks that support the doll’s underarms.
Once she was able to stand on her own, Barbie became a bit more mobile and posable. A US patent, US 3,277,601, granted in 1966 discloses a Barbie doll with “life-like” limbs that are “adapted to reproduce the natural movements and contours of a human limb and yet maintain a selected position.” The doll’s legs each have an internal support structure with a thigh shaft and a shin shaft that are pivotably connected to one another to provide the doll with functional knees. US 3,628,282 built on this concept adding a variety of different joints to provide the Barbie doll with functional shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles and to enable the doll’s head to turn and tilt without creating a gap.
Barbie’s Dreamhouse has even appeared in the Official Gazette. The second iteration of Barbie’s dreamhouse, the subject of US 3,363,360, was foldable into a suitcase-style package with a carrying handle for convenient storage and travel. Complete with a living room, bedroom, kitchen, patio, slidable patio door, an open-and-close closet, and working cabinet doors, Barbie’s dreamhouse was truly a marvel. Some may not feel it’s quite a ‘dreamhouse’ though due to its cardboard construction.
From Official Gazette patents to her signature shade of pink flooding the box office, Barbie has been a smashing success.
Norman K. Freda is an attorney at Fishman Stewart and practices in the fields of patent, trademark, copyright law, and litigation. He holds a BS degree in Applied Engineering Sciences from Michigan State University. Check out his bio.
Related Content from Fishman Stewart
L.A.B. Golf aims to protect its innovations, and therefore its market position, owning three patents for its zero-torque design. The question now is whether L.A.B. Golf can withstand the wave of copycat designs.
One of his most famous songs, “Lose Yourself” was recently at the center of a lawsuit. In 2019, Eminem’s publishing company Eight Mile Style sued Spotify claiming that Spotify streamed a number of its musical compositions without proper licenses.
Our latest article tackles three common trademark questions: 1. Can I trademark my own name? 2. Can I trademark the name of a fictional character? 3. Can I trademark the name of a U.S. president or British royal?
One of the most common challenges is whether AI should be free to train on data that is protected by copyright and owned by third parties without first obtaining permission.
Like the titles of single creative works, character names do not generate trademark rights unless used for a series of creative works (meaning two or more). A year ago, Jane Wick, LLC filed a trademark application for the mark JANE WICK in logo format.
The U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) recently published its latest report on AI and “copyrightability.” In short, the USCO considers only some AI-generated works to be sufficiently creative as to deserve copyright protection, and thus, registration.
We know that as of June 4, 2024, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) had issued more than twelve million patents. We also know that more than 10,000 patents were in existence before the count began.
Back in the 1940’s assignments by independent contractors could be permanent and irrevocable. Things changed in 1976, when Congress overhauled the Copyright Act.
Generally, copyright protects the specific expression of ideas, such as the arrangement and presentation of visual elements, but it does not protect general concepts or styles.
In the age of the internet, memes are a universal language. A meme is a piece of content, typically an image, video, text, or a combination of these, that spreads rapidly across the internet, often with humorous, relatable, or satirical undertones.
IDENTIFYING, SECURING AND ADVANCING CREATIVITY®
