MEMORANDUM

TO: Junior Associates (N-Z)FROM: Senior Partner Goering and Senior Associate Muir RE: New Client DATE: September 30, 2008

Yesterday we were retained by a new client. Sarah Palin has just learned that cartoonist Garry Trudeau has published a series of Doonesbury comic strips that include her image in the form of a “Sarah Palin action doll.”

It seems that a Connecticut corporation, HeroBuilders.com, recently began manufacturing and selling Sarah Palin look-alike “action dolls” on its internet website. As you might imagine, given the instant celebrity status Palin recently acquired as John McCain’s vice-presidential running mate, the dolls are selling like hotcakes. In fact, I just logged on to the company’s website and learned that the company has received so many orders that prospective purchasers who order after September 24 are being advised to expect a six-week delay. (Check it out for yourself: http://www.herobuilders.com/08.htm). The dolls sell for between $27.95 and $29.95 (depending upon the doll’s outfit and accessories), so you know the company must be making a tidy profit.

Although HeroBuilders.com also manufactures look-alike action figures of other nationally known celebrities, similar companies generally secure license agreements to produce look-alikes of others. For example, Palin told me that her good friend Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California, recently settled a lawsuit against an Ohio company that manufactured a “Terminator” bobble-head doll. As part of the settlement, the company agreed to redesign the doll and donate the sales proceeds to one of Schwarzenegger’s favorite charities. But in this case, the company has neither sought nor obtained permission from Palin to market the “action figure” dolls. Obviously the company was in a big hurry to profit from her instantaneous celebrity status before the upcoming election, so it must have decided to take its chances and skip negotiations with her for a license agreement.

As you probably already know, many bloggers and newscasters have referred to Palin pejoratively as the “Barbie doll of the GOP” since McCain surprised the country on the eve of the Republican National Convention by naming her as his running mate. She is particularly upset by the dolls and the comic-strip because she does not want to be type-cast to the country as the Republican “beauty queen,” which she believes amounts to gender discrimination. Not only does she want HeroBuilders to stop producing the dolls, but she also wants to know whether she can sue Trudeau for damages for exploiting her image in the comic-strip series.

Professor GoeringLARW I and II, Section A3

Palin is worried that the publicity Trudeau’s comic strip is giving the action-figure doll manufacturer is just making things worse. And she has no idea whether Trudeau plans to continue mocking her in the comic strip. She wants to know whether she has a legal right to put a stop to HeroBuilders’s doll marketing efforts before the presidential election on November 4. Also, if the McCain-Palin ticket doesn’t win the presidential election, can Palin recover damages from either HeroBuilders or Garry Trudeau, or both, for exploiting her image? (By the way, did you know that Trudeau is married to Jane Pauly? I guess it’s a small world in the broadcast news business. Like Pauly, Palin got her start as a television news broadcaster.)

Please research the legal issues. Specifically, does Sarah Palin have a legal remedy against HeroBuilders.com for using her name and three-dimensional likeness without her permission to produce and market the Sarah Palin look-alike doll? Second, does Palin have a legal remedy against Garry Trudeau for featuring the doll in his copyrighted comic strip? In case you need to know, HeroBuilders.com is a Connecticut corporation, so Connecticut law will apply to an action against HeroBuilders. Garry Trudeau lives and works in New York City, so New York law will apply to any claim against Trudeau. Don’t overlook the possible application of federal law as a defense to either or both claims. Please assume that Palin will file her complaint in federal district court in Connecticut.

I have a followup meeting with Sarah Palin scheduled (at an undisclosed location, of course) on Friday, October 24. Therefore, I will need a draft of your memo no later than Thursday, October 23, at 5:00 p.m., in order to have enough time to read it over and think about it before our next conference. I have attached part of HeroBuilders.com’s internet advertisement, including a photo of the Sarah Palin dolls, and a copy of the Doonesbury comic strip series for your information. Thanks so much for your help. Oh yes -- you may enjoy the following video spoof of the Sarah Palin action dolls, which I just found on the internet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCSonCYCN9Y&feature=dir

You may discuss the assignment with any of your first-year law school classmates in this section. However, it is a violation of the Honor Code to show your written work to anyone except me or Jared Muir, my senior associate. Please review the attached guidelines regarding the Honor Code. If you have any questions about whether certain conduct violates the Honor Code, you are expected to consult Jared or me for guidance.

Attachments:

Herobuilders.com Website Advertisement for Sarah Palin Action Figures Doonesbury comic strip, September 21-27, 2008 Honor Code Guidelines for Graded Memos and Briefs

Professor GoeringLARW I and II, Section A3

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Professor GoeringLARW I and II, Section A3

Monday, September 22, 2008

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Professor GoeringLARW I and II, Section A3

Friday, September 26, 2008

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Professor GoeringLARW I and II, Section A3

Honor Code Guidelines for Graded Memos and BriefsLegal Analysis, Research, and Writing I and II

Q: Who is allowed to see my memo or brief?

A: You may not show your memo or brief to anyone except me and Jared Muir, my teaching assistant.

Please understand that this requirement is indeed as limited as it sounds. You may not show your paper to your spouse, sweetheart, best friend, mother, significant other, or anyone else, even "just to proofread" or "just to see what she thinks." This applies even if you've "always had so-and-so proofread all my papers."

Q: With whom may I research and discuss my memo or brief problem?

A: You may research and discuss your memo and brief problems only with fellow members of the A3 Section, Washburn Law School librarians, Jared Muir, or me. Reading your memo or brief to another individual is not discussion and is not allowed.

Please understand that this requirement is, again, as limited as it sounds. This means you may not discuss your problem or your paper with students from other classes or other LARW sections, with mentors, with tutors, with attorneys, with other professors, with parents, with siblings, or with any of your friends who are not Section A3 students.

Q: What should I do if I have a question on what is permissible and what is not?

A: Ask me in class, come see me, e-mail me, phone me, or drop a note in my mailbox in Room 203. You must check with me before doing anything else.

Q: How long do these restrictions last for any particular assignment?

A: Until I announce in class that they are lifted.

Professor GoeringLARW I and II, Section A3

Q: What should I do if I know that somebody is violating these rules?

A: Under the Honor Code, you have a responsibility to come to me with names and details, so that I can begin an investigation. I will vigorously pursue an investigation of any violation for which I have evidence. However, please understand that I can do nothing with rumor or innuendo.

Q: So, is cheating a common problem?

A: No, it is not. It is rare, in my experience both as a student and a professor. Most students who are intelligent and disciplined enough to get into law school don’t need any rules at all, because they abide by the simple rule that it is unfair to do anything on a graded assignment that would give them an unfair advantage over fellow law students. But cheating has happened before, and therefore I am spelling out the rules to assure you that anyone who breaks these rules is either too ignorant or too unethical to belong in the legal profession.

Q: Don't these restrictions defeat some educational benefits?

A: Yes, indeed, they do. In legal practice, it is beneficial to talk about a memo or brief problem with anyone you think may be able to help, subject to your ethical duty to keep your client communications confidential. But law school is not "real life." Requiring you to write a memo and a brief entirely on your own is intended to be of great benefit to you, but that is not the only purpose. The other purpose of graded assignments is to test your ability to apply legal research, analysis, and writing skills you learn through reading, exercises, and class discussion.

So, in the weeks to come, please remember:

THIS IS A TEST.