Trademarks are tricky. Sometimes it can seem as though most everything legally belongs to someone else, and that someone may or may not appreciate it if you so much as look at their trademarked property. Other times, however, trademark infringement is very clear, as it is in the UCLA School of Law’s usage of Rock Band 4 icons.
The law school’s advert, written to congratulate John Branca, an entertainment lawyer and UCLA alumni, and his appointment to Billboard’s Power 100 list, is quite clearly adorned with Rock Band 4’s instrumental icons. The irony doesn’t stop there: The ad celebrates achievements in “media, entertainment, technology and sports law.” Apparently, the achievers didn’t work on the ad.
The funniest part of all this is the official Rock Band Twitter’s response to the slip-up:
Dear @UCLA_Law, hoping to get some quick legal advice about someone using our trademarked icons in their ad.
In other deliciously ironic legal news, Leland Yee, a former U.S. state senator and anti-violent games advocate, was recently convicted and sentenced to five years in prison for weapon smuggling and political corruption.
