Hey, there! Log in / Register
Boston film-festival name battle now playing in federal court
By adamg on Thu, 07/28/2016 - 9:07am
The Independent Film Festival Boston is suing the Boston International Film Festival for trademark infringement, charging the latter is intentionally confusing both movie makers and ticket buyers.
In a lawsuit filed yesterday in US District Court in Boston, the Independent Film Festival Boston, which also goes by IFF Boston, said that not only has the Boston International Film Festival moved its screening week closer to the IFF's week, it's taken to calling itself Boston IFF - even in its Web-site URL.
The Somerville group's complaint gives some examples of the confusion that's caused:
In addition to numerous people tagging the incorrect Twitter handle when tweeting about the IFF Boston and Boston IFF Festivals, several film producers and/or directors have mistakenly submitted their movies to BI Film Festival thinking that it was the IFF Boston because of the nearly identical Boston IFF name.
Indeed, indicative of confusion within BI Film Festival itself, in 2015, BI Film Festival retweeted a tweet by Alexie Gilmore, lead actress in "Willow Creek" (a movie that premiered at IFF Boston), which she mistakenly tagged with the @bostoniff handle. Thus, using the handle @bostoniff, BI Film Festival tweeted a picture promoting a film that premiered at IFF Boston.
Or, in other words, IFF Boston charges:
BI Film Festival’s actions demonstrate an intentional, willful, and malicious intent to trade on the goodwill associated with the IFF BOSTON Marks to the great and irreparable injury to Plaintiff.
The group asks a judge to rule the confusion was deliberate and that the Boston International Film Festival be prohibited from calling itself either Boston IFF or BostonIFF. Also:
BI Film Festival be directed to send and make public, within 30 days of the granting of this Order, curative statements approved in advance by Plaintiff, including a formal retraction by means of a national e-mail campaign and a direct mailing to all of BI Film Festival's customers, and a full-page advertisement in the appropriate publications, or other corrective action approved by Plaintiff, to ensure that consumers are not further mislead by BI Film Festival's claims.
The group also seeks payment of any profits the Boston International Film Festival has made because of the confusion, plus treble damages and attorneys' fees.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Complete IFFB complaint | 49.98 KB |
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
The plaintiff in this lawsuit
The plaintiff in this lawsuit is the INDEPENDENT Film Festival Boston, not the International, as you wrote in the article.
Stupid mistake
Thanks for catching it; fixed.
No "of" in Independent Film Festival Boston's name
It's just Independent Film Festival Boston, no "of". Usually that would not be an error worth correcting, but in this suit, every letter and word counts.
Guess I picked the wrong day to stop drinking coffee
Fixed, thanks.
Don't feel bad. It's a
Don't feel bad. It's a relatively recent change... maybe over the last 2 festivals. The "of" was there in the past.
IFF Boston is not in Boston
The new Boston International Film Festival takes place in Boston.
The Independent Film Festival Boston http://iffboston.org/ takes place in Somerville and Cambridge.
The iffboston is a nice festival, but I see no Trademark notice on their website.
The much older Boston Film Festival http://bostonfilmfestival.org/ hasn't raised a fuss about use of the words Boston, Film, or Festival by the Independent Film Festival Boston.
What a waste of non-profit dollars, if the legal fees are not pro bono. There are enough films to go around.
Boston lacks independent movie theatres
The whole city of Boston has only two stand-alone movie theatres, the AMC-Loews Boston Common and the Regal Fenway. Other than that, all you've got are adjunct single-screen venues such as the Emerson Paramount screening room and theatres at the MFA and ICA.
IFFB also shows films at the
IFFB also shows films at the Coolidge (Brookline) and UMass Boston. In the past, they have screened at the ICA and the MFA.
Actually, the Independent
Actually, the Independent Film Festival Boston has had part of the festival at UMass Boston for several years now. In years before that it would have nights at the Stuart Street Playhouse...
Furthermore, IFFBoston does not cease to exist after the 8 days of the festival. They continue to hold screenings all around the greater city throughout the year..
The real issue is the complete lack of independent theatre space in Boston proper.
IFF year-round screenings
An upcoming example is the Benefit Screening at the Brattle next Wednesday for OneOrlando of "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert."
IFF is very proactive in promoting screenings of their festival films when they open at venues like the Brattle and Coolidge, including this weekend's screenings of "The Fits" at the Brattle.
Pro Bono
According to the Herald article, the lawyers are working for free.
http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/arts_culture/2016/07/boston_fi...
I wondered when this was
I wondered when this was going to happen. The founders were irritated with this crew when the BIFF started up.
BIFF v. IFFB
Whether it's intentional confusion or not, I urge independent filmmakers to learn from our mistake. We submitted our new doc - FIGHT: Inside the Battle for Market Basket - to BIFF thinking it was IFFB, and by the time we figured out the confusion we felt it was too late to pull out. Had we known what a poorly organized festival BIFF was, that there wasn't a single industry/distributor representative there, that some of the venues were seriously sub par, and that maybe having a film festival on Marathon Weekend in downtown Boston wasn't such a great idea, we would have jumped ship.
Correction - Film is called
Correction - Film is called FOOD FIGHT - Inside the Battle for Market Basket. www.foodfightfilm.com
BIFF v. IFFB
Whether it's intentional confusion or not, I urge independent filmmakers to learn from our mistake. We submitted our new doc - FOOD FIGHT: Inside the Battle for Market Basket - to BIFF thinking it was IFFB, and by the time we figured out the confusion we felt it was too late to pull out. Had we known what a poorly organized festival BIFF was, that there wasn't a single industry/distributor representative there, that some of the venues were seriously sub par, and that maybe having a film festival in downtown Boston on Marathon Weekend wasn't such a great idea, we would have jumped ship.
You should file an affidavit in support of IFFB
if you haven't done so already.