My profeesor collects weird court decisions...
Mattel, Inc. v. MCA Records, Inc., 296 F.3d 894 (9th Cir. 2002).
Mattel, creator of the Barbie doll, sued a producer over Danish band Aqua's annoyingly upbeat song "I'm a Barbie Girl." Although the bulk of the opinion is a straightforward examination of Mattel's intellectual property claims, the court's introduction and conclusion are worth a read.
After noting that Mattel transformed Barbie over the years so that she no longer resembles a "German street walker," the court teased MCA for filing a defamation claim when Mattel used words like "bank robber" and "heist" in the press:
"But all of these are variants of the invective most often hurled at accused infringers, namely 'piracy.' No one hearing this accusation understands intellectual property owners to be saying that infringers are nautical cutthroats with eyepatches and peg legs who board galleons to plunder cargo. In context, all these terms are nonactionable 'rhetorical hyperbole[.'] The parties are advised to chill."
Washington v. Alamo, 934 F. Supp. 1395 (S.D. Ga. 1996).
The court imposed filing restrictions on a pro se inmate (he represented himself i.e. he is without a lawyer) who submitted multiple frivolous motions, including a Motion for Psychoanalysis, Motion for Catered Food Service and Motion to Kiss my Ass (requesting "all Americans at large and [the judge] to kiss my got [sic] damn ass"). Comparing the plaintiff to the boy who cried wolf too many times, the court noted that it would "not turn a deaf ear to Plaintiff's future cries. However, it will require Plaintiff to structure his pleas for help in a more sincere manner so that the energies of the villagers are not wasted on the repeated runs up the grassy hill atop which the mischievous boy sits laughing."
More at: http://www.kcba.org/scriptcontent/KCBA/barbulletin/archive/2007/07-05/article10.cfm
Mattel, creator of the Barbie doll, sued a producer over Danish band Aqua's annoyingly upbeat song "I'm a Barbie Girl." Although the bulk of the opinion is a straightforward examination of Mattel's intellectual property claims, the court's introduction and conclusion are worth a read.
After noting that Mattel transformed Barbie over the years so that she no longer resembles a "German street walker," the court teased MCA for filing a defamation claim when Mattel used words like "bank robber" and "heist" in the press:
"But all of these are variants of the invective most often hurled at accused infringers, namely 'piracy.' No one hearing this accusation understands intellectual property owners to be saying that infringers are nautical cutthroats with eyepatches and peg legs who board galleons to plunder cargo. In context, all these terms are nonactionable 'rhetorical hyperbole[.'] The parties are advised to chill."
Washington v. Alamo, 934 F. Supp. 1395 (S.D. Ga. 1996).
The court imposed filing restrictions on a pro se inmate (he represented himself i.e. he is without a lawyer) who submitted multiple frivolous motions, including a Motion for Psychoanalysis, Motion for Catered Food Service and Motion to Kiss my Ass (requesting "all Americans at large and [the judge] to kiss my got [sic] damn ass"). Comparing the plaintiff to the boy who cried wolf too many times, the court noted that it would "not turn a deaf ear to Plaintiff's future cries. However, it will require Plaintiff to structure his pleas for help in a more sincere manner so that the energies of the villagers are not wasted on the repeated runs up the grassy hill atop which the mischievous boy sits laughing."
More at: http://www.kcba.org/scriptcontent/KCBA/barbulletin/archive/2007/07-05/article10.cfm