Property, intangible

a blog about ownership of intellectual property rights and its licensing


Can’t Break Away From Those Chains

You have the following transactional events:

  • Registering of copyrights for toy action figures with authorship by Louis Marx & Co.
  • Bill of sale of Louis Marx & Co. to The Quaker Oats Company
  • Bill of Sale of Louis Marx & Co. to Dunbee-Combex
  • Change of Name from Dunbee-Combex to Dunbee-Combex-Marx d/b/a Louis Marx & Co.
  • Petition for Bankruptcy filed by Dunbee-Combex-Marx d/b/a Louis Marx & Co.
  • Bill of Sale of copyrights from Chemical Bank to plaintiff American Plastic Equipment, Inc.
  • Bill of sale of copyrights from American Plastic Equipment to Marx Toys, Inc.
  • Administrative dissolution of Marx Toys, Inc.
  • Oral assignment of copyrights to American Plastic Equipment, Inc.

The court held that the plaintiff could not prove ownership of the copyrights, so its copyright infringement claim failed. Spot the break in the chain. Answer this time tomorrow.

© 2009 Pamela Chestek

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One response to “Can’t Break Away From Those Chains”

  1. Between two and three, right? Step three (LM&C to Dunbee-Combex) totally skips over the Quaker Oats sale.