The Naked Cowboy’s trademark and publicity rights claims against Mars and its M&M candies have survived a motion to dismiss (opinion from the Southern District of New York provided via The Trademark Blog. The Las Vegas Trademark Attorney helpfully supplies relevant images, some of which also appear in the court’s opinion.

All of this raises the following question:

If the Naked Cowboy and Mars settle the case and NC grants Mars permission to use the mark (admittedly, that result seems unlikely), can the NC keep his rights in the mark even if he engages in such a “naked” license?

A little inside trademark humor for Friday.

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