São Paulo court rules social media memes do not violate trademark rights

The Court of Justice of São Paulo (TJ-SP) has ruled that the use of a brand in satirical social media memes does not violate exclusive trademark rights or constitute unfair competition. The 1st Reserved Chamber of Business Law unanimously upheld a lower court decision that denied a request to block Instagram accounts using a university's name for satirical purposes.

The university, the trademark holder, had filed a lawsuit against Facebook seeking an urgent injunction to block the accounts. The institution claimed the accounts used its name to produce content that was derogatory, vulgar, and negative, thereby violating exclusive usage rights.

Facebook argued that the removal of accounts should be handled by Instagram and maintained that platforms can only be compelled to remove content via judicial orders proving illegality. The platform further contended that deleting entire accounts is disproportionate and that only specific offensive content should be removed. The initial ruling found no violation of exclusivity because the publications were not used for commercial purposes, which does not constitute an illicit act or abuse.