The past decade has seen a growing trend of companies in California and elsewhere buying up patents that were sitting on the shelf because they were not worth commercializing. In some cases, companies purchased such patents en masse for the sole purpose of litigating patent infringement cases against businesses that produced goods or services resembling a feature in one of the patents. In many cases, the lawsuits were directed at tech companies who began to buy up such patents themselves as defense mechanisms.
Horse-racing announcer sues over trademark infringement in movie
Making a film in California sometimes results in some unexpected surprises, such as legal action. This is what's happening with a 2014 Bill Murray movie. A horse-racing announcer is suing the film's production company over what he claims is trademark infringement. The case centers around the phrase "And down the stretch they come!" which the announcer first used in the 1960s. It later became a well-known phrase when he used it during horse races shown on broadcast TV in the 1970s.
