Microsoft settles after ad firm says ad ideas lift

Microsoft has settled a lawsuit that accused it of copying another company's ads. Boca Raton-based Cellrderm, which makes novelty phones, dismissed a lawsuit accusing Microsoft of copying bedroom and bathroom scenes from 2009-era spots with its initial "Really?" series of Windows Phone ads (below) a year later. The two had been mediating since July, but didn't disclose what the terms of the settlement were.

In a possible response, Microsoft no longer has the short ads individually highlighting the bathroom and bedroom scenes, although it's still possible to find the minute-long ad that includes clips from both. Unofficial YouTube channels still have the individual clips.

US copyright law allows basic ideas for media to be copied but not their specific representations. In the case of the bathroom ad, for example, the similarity is specific in having men obsessed with using their phones at urinals while one annoyed man holds off.

The Microsoft commercials have stopped running and were originally meant for the fall 2010 launch of Windows Phone. Settling the case still suggests it believed there was some legitimacy to the considerably smaller company's complaints and won't help Microsoft's public image of getting ideas from others, even if Microsoft's marketing agency choice CPB was responsible. [via paidContent]

By Electronista Staff