United States: Ask Rosa Parks-Song Title Using Her Name May Mislead Public

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has held that a use of another's name in a song title may violate the Lanham Act. Parks v. Laface Records, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 8835 (6th Cir. May 14, 2003). The plaintiff, Rosa Parks, is a civil rights icon. The plaintiff sued the defendant, a rapper, for using her name as the title of a song. The message of the song is that other rappers are of a lesser quality and, therefore, "must move to the back of the bus." The district court awarded summary judgment in favor of the defendant on the ground that the challenged use was protected by the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech. Ms. Parks appealed.

The Sixth Circuit reversed. The court noted that a title to a work is not absolutely immune from the provisions of the Lanham Act. "The First Amendment cannot permit anyone who cries 'artist' to have carte blanche when it comes to naming and advertising his or her works, art though it may be... . The purchaser of a book, like the purchaser of a can of peas, has a right not to be misled as to the source or endorsement of the product." The court explained that the title to a work is not protected by the First Amendment if the title has no artistic relevance to the underlying work whatsoever, or the title explicitly misleads as to the source or the content of the work. Here, the defendant had admitted that he used the name ROSA PARKS as the title of the song to show that "we comin' back out so all you other MCs move to the back of the bus" and not to convey a message about Rosa Parks or the civil rights movement. Accordingly, a reasonable finder of fact could conclude that the title had no artistic relevance to the song, and, thus, was not protected by the First Amendment.