Polar Bear Productions, Inc. v. Timex Corp.

This intellectual property case pits the sport of extreme kayaking against the iconic American timepiece, Timex. In an effort to update its image, Timex Corporation (“Timex”) arranged with Polar Bear Productions (“Polar Bear”) to produce film footage featuring some of the stars of whitewater kayaking, paddling through exotic locales in North and South America and using equipment bearing the Timex logo. ■ The promotion was so popular with Timex that it just kept on ticking 1 , and continued using the footage well beyond any permission to do so. The result is a lawsuit that has taken on a life far beyond a simple copyright and trademark case. Now, after two trials, two jury verdicts awarding in excess of $2 million to Polar Bear, and a long history between the parties, the case presents us with several novel issues of copyright law. The consequence of this appeal is a series of rulings resulting in yet another round in the trial court.

In response to Timex’s unauthorized use of footage from its copyrighted film, Polar Bear brought state and federal copyright and trademark .claims against the watchmaker. . Through pretrial rulings, the district court disposed of all of…