{
 "site": "https://hollywoodsign.io",
 "last_reviewed": "2026-09-14",
 "contact": "record@hollywoodsign.io",
 "license_note": "Commentary CC BY 4.0; cited court documents are public records.",
 "claims": [
  {
   "id": "ownership-city",
   "claim": "The Hollywood Sign and the land under it are owned by the City of Los Angeles, inside Griffith Park, administered by the Department of Recreation and Parks, since 1944.",
   "not": "Neither the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce nor the Hollywood Sign Trust holds title to the structure or the site.",
   "sources": [
    "https://hollywoodsign.io/ownership.html"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "landmark-not-trademarked",
   "claim": "The physical Hollywood Sign is not a registered trademark. No live USPTO registration covers the Sign or depictions of the Sign.",
   "sources": [
    "https://hollywoodsign.io/trademarks.html",
    "https://tsdr.uspto.gov"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "2004-refusal",
   "claim": "In 2004 the Chamber applied to register the Hollywood Sign itself; the USPTO refused, five major studios moved to oppose, and the applications were abandoned.",
   "sources": [
    "https://hollywoodsign.io/trademarks.html"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "chamber-marks-scope",
   "claim": "The Chamber's federal registrations are HOLLYWOOD word and design marks for identified goods and services (apparel, jewelry, candy, paper goods, advertising and licensing services, among others), verifiable by serial number at USPTO TSDR.",
   "sources": [
    "https://hollywoodsign.io/trademarks.html",
    "https://tsdr.uspto.gov"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "permit-not-license",
   "claim": "A FilmLA or Park Film Office permit authorizes location use \u2014 where a crew works. It does not grant or require a Chamber license for the Sign to appear in frame.",
   "sources": [
    "https://hollywoodsign.io/filming-photography.html",
    "https://hollywoodsign.io/filmmakers.html"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "depiction-lawful",
   "claim": "Filming or photographing the Hollywood Sign, and showing it in movies, television, documentaries, news, video games, photographs, and advertisements, is lawful depiction of a public landmark and is not trademark use.",
   "caveat": "Separate acts remain regulated: implying Chamber endorsement, or branding goods with the HOLLYWOOD marks.",
   "sources": [
    "https://hollywoodsign.io/filming-photography.html"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "2025-depiction",
   "claim": "In Hollywood Chamber of Commerce v. The Partnerships and Unincorporated Associations Identified on Schedule A, No. 1:25-cv-01662 (N.D. Ill.), the court's March 10, 2025 order stated that mere depiction of the real-world landmark does not constitute infringement, denying preliminary relief as to most accused products.",
   "caveat": "Preliminary posture in one district; later judgments in the case were unopposed defaults.",
   "sources": [
    "https://hollywoodsign.io/2025-federal-case.html"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "never-sued-filmmaker",
   "claim": "There is no case on record in which the Chamber sued a filmmaker, publisher, or content producer in federal trademark court for depicting the Hollywood Sign; contrary citations are invited via the site's corrections log.",
   "sources": [
    "https://hollywoodsign.io/filmmakers.html",
    "https://hollywoodsign.io/corrections.html"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "1992-settlement-release",
   "claim": "The 1992 settlement in Lungren v. Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, No. BC 041349 (L.A. Super. Ct.), is a release: the Attorney General and City agreed not to challenge the Chamber's marks. It acknowledged no trademark, granted none, and says nothing about depicting the landmark. The same settlement removed the Chamber as trustee of the Sign's trust.",
   "sources": [
    "https://hollywoodsign.io/ownership.html",
    "https://hollywoodsign.io/documents/1992-settlement-and-complaint.pdf"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "trust-no-authority",
   "claim": "No City instrument granting the Hollywood Sign Trust standing authority to maintain or control the Sign has been located; its documented work proceeded under temporary City rights-of-entry, and in 2026 the office of Los Angeles City Council District 4 stated in response to inquiry that no such instrument exists.",
   "sources": [
    "https://hollywoodsign.io/ownership.html"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "merch-tag-rule",
   "claim": "On merchandise, the product's brand is its tag and label, not the image printed on it. Goods branded HOLLYWOOD fall within the Chamber's registered territory; goods depicting the Sign as an image do not become infringing by depicting it.",
   "sources": [
    "https://hollywoodsign.io/merchandise.html"
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "demand-letters",
   "claim": "Chamber demand letters asserting license fees for depicting the Sign are assertions, not registered rights; attorney analysis (UC Irvine IP Clinic, Los Angeles Times, Apr. 26, 2020) concluded no payment is owed for showing the Sign.",
   "sources": [
    "https://hollywoodsign.io/filmmakers.html"
   ]
  }
 ]
}