Pamela Chestek
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I Think This One Is Wrong
Moreno v. Pro Boxing Supplies, Inc. is a precedential decision and, IMHO, clearly contrary to the Board’s controlling precedent. Opposer and petitioner Julie Moreno is the exclusive US licensee of the unregistered trademark CASANOVA for boxing equipment: Applicant and Registrant Pro Boxing Supplies is the owner of a registration for CASANOVA in standard character form… Continue reading
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It’s The Details
What a confusing ownership case (which perhaps means that the wise reader stops right here). Errors on every level, at the end of the day unrecoverable. The parties are Paradise Biryani, Inc. (PBI), Paradise Biryani Express, Inc. (Express), and Biryani Point Paradise LLC (PBB) on one side, and Paradise Hospitality Group, LLC (PHG) on the… Continue reading
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The World’s Most Ambiguous Trademark Assignment
Gosh I love this case. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s resoundingly wrong, but what a fascinating way to get there. Plaintiff Quantum, Inc. sells natural health products. It owned the registered trademark MigreLief for “nutritional supplement containing feverfew and other natural ingredients for relieving headaches.” The trademark was registered in 1996, a date… Continue reading
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Five Years Later, It Doesn’t Matter Who Filed It
It’s pretty official at this point, once a trademark registration is “mature,” that is, more than five years old, the registration cannot be challenged on the basis that the original application was not filed by the then-owner of the mark. The 6th Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, reached this conclusion and we now have the… Continue reading
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Licenses, Consents or Assignments?
Lawn Managers, Inc. v. Progressive Lawn Managers, Inc. is about a trademark and a divorce, a case we’ve visited before. Where we last left it, the federal court was abstaining to allow the parties to figure things out in family court. As it turns out that order was vacated; on reconsideration the court concluded that… Continue reading
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Who Should Own the Trade Dress?
Oneida Group, Inc. v. Steelite International U.S.A. Inc. is a demonstration of how our jurisprudence is essentially useless in deciding trademark ownership claims. The dispute is over ownership of the trade dress in the highly successful “Botticelli” and “Nexus” tableware patterns, part of Oneida’s “Sant’ Andrea” line: The tableware is considered premier and sold to… Continue reading
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When You Can’t Find the Writing
The patent, trademark and copyright statutes each provide that an assignment must be in writing. One time I asked a listserv whether that means you have to have the writing in hand. Silly me, it is an evidence question. Defendant Denis Bouboulis was an inventor of an allergy treatment device. He became a shareholder, and… Continue reading
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You Be the Judge
A poll. We have a trademark for a recurring sports event and two parties who each claim to own it. Here are the facts as we know them. They aren’t hypothetical; they are taken from a case and it’s all we have to go on. Work with what you’ve got. Plaintiff’s version Defendant’s version Revenue… Continue reading
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A Pretty Lousy Test
By now you should have read John Welch‘s excellent report on the Federal Circuit opinion in Lyons v. The American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation; you can also find more background from me on the Board decision here. Despite my fondness for ownership cases, I wish this wasn’t one, or at least I… Continue reading
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