10:00am | The Long Beach Post has obtained an e-mail sent to Occupy Long Beach demanding the group stop using registered or copyrighted material related to the Queen Mary.
“Our client must demand that OLB cease and desist its use of our client’s registered marks and copyrighted photograph,” says the letter penned by Jessica Brookhart-Knost, an associate attorney at Fulwider * Patton LLP, a Los Angeles firm specializing in intellectual-property law.
The image supplied to the Long Beach Post said to be the basis for Occupy Long Beach’s now-former logo.
In the February 9 letter Brookhart-Knost notes, “Although it appears that OLB has removed the infringing QUEEN MARY and QUEEN MARY Design mark and copyrighted photograph from its header banner on the primary website,” there remain several places on OLB’s primary and secondary Websites where “infringing mark[s]” occur.
“If the infringing content is not removed by Monday, February 13, 2012, our client is prepared to contact OLB’s sponsoring registrar to demand deactivation of OLB’s website and other pages, such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, and webs.com, until the infringement can be cured.”
Occupiers seen here holding their altered Queen Mary logo. Photo by Greggory Moore.
A member of Occupy Long Beach tells the Long Beach Post that the iconography the group used was a drawing of a ship obtained from JupiterImages, a stock photography and illustration site, altered by the group to resemble the Queen Mary; and that OLB’s usage of the image was legal and in compliance with the company’s licensing agreement.
Nonetheless, as of February 15, it appears Occupy Long Beach had complied with the demand.
The letter sent by Brookhart-Knost does not directly name the client, but since September 2011 Newport Beach-based Evolution Hospitality has managed the Queen Mary.
When reached by the Long Beach Post Wednesday evening, Brookhart-Knost said that because the letter was “confidential” she could not discuss any matters related to it, including the identity of her client.