New York Stock Exchange Claims Rights to All Photos of Trading Floor

In November 2010, Talking Points Memo published an article that included a wire photo taken on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. Yesterday they received a cease and desist letter from the NYSE claiming that photos of the trading floor cannot be displayed without the NYSE’s permission, and that it owns trademark rights to images of the floor:

NYSE has common law and Federal trademark rights in and to NYSE’s name and images of the Trading Floor […] NYSE owns Federal tradmark rights in one depiction of the Trading Floor and common law rights in the Trading Floor viewed from virtually any angle […] Accordingly, NYSE has the right to prevent unauthorized use of its Trademarks and reference to NYSE by others. [#]

You can read the two page C&D letter here. What are your thoughts on this?


Image credit: NYSE trading floor (tilt-shifted) by champura

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