Disney Teddy Bear Case Offers Tricky Tryout of Trademark Test

A dispute over Disney’s Lotso bear from “Toy Story 3" gives the Ninth Circuit a shot at shaping parameters for a new trademark test threshold that the US Supreme Court just created in a similar Jack Daniel’s case.

The high court last week revived Diece-Lisa Industries Inc.'s lawsuit against Disney. That order came on the heels of its ruling in favor of Jack Daniel’s, which reined in a test that can provide an escape hatch from liability when a trademark is used in First Amendment-protected expressive works.

The “Rogers” test, which allows artistically relevant use of trademarks, had single-handedly cleared ...