Microsoft hit with lawsuit over Windows Phone ‘Really’ ads

A company called Cellrderm has taken Microsoft to court over its Windows Phone “Really” advertisements, according to Adweek. Cellrderm, a gag company that creates commercials for a fake Cellrderm “cell abuse aid” product, argues that it owns the copyrights to the creative content used in Microsoft’s ads and that Microsoft copied its work in its “Bedroom” and “Bathroom” commercials. You’ve probably seen the ads on TV: in one, a man is too busy on his phone to pay attention to his wife in the bedroom. In another, an executive drops his phone in the urinal and reaches to pick it up. “The Microsoft commercials copy both the sequence of events and the character interplay found in the Cellrderm commercials,” the company wrote in the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. “The Microsoft commercials also copy other copyrightable expression, including but not limited to clothing, gestures, character appearance, camera angles, and other visual elements from the Cellrderm Commercials.” Cellrderm is seeking damages and has asked the court to block Microsoft from airing the commercials.

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