The Arizona Board of Regents has no legal right to sue the owner of an Instagram account who posted anonymous messages about "ASU covid parties.''
In a ruling Friday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected claims by the regents that anyone who saw the posts would have believed that the posts actually came from Arizona State University. And the judges said the fact that one of the posts used ASU's logo and even the university's maroon and gold colors did not change their minds.
If nothing else, the judges said the federal Lantham Act, which protects trademarks, applies only in commercial circumstances. That, they said, was not the case here.
