Pamela Chestek
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Copyright Registrations Confusing Things Again – Updated
I have not been shy in expressing my opinion about the copyright registration system. I’m not a fan of the requirement that one must have a registration before a lawsuit can be filed; as a result, the first stages of a copyright infringement lawsuit are collateral attacks on the registration. Cisco alleged infringement of the… Continue reading
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What Rights are Conveyed? We Have to Wait and See
I asked in a prior post whether plaintiff Joseph Cooper had the right to publish his videotapes of performances of famous comedian Steve Harvey, taped at Harvey’s Texas club in 1993, based on this invoice: Click here for larger version Unfortunately we don’t know yet, because it’s most certainly a question of fact, not one… Continue reading
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What Rights are Conveyed?
Click here for larger version Can Cooper, the videographer, put his videos of now-famous comedian Steve Harvey on YouTube? This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Continue reading
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And You Wonder Why Litigation Is Expensive
Golly, the things you have to explain sometimes. Plaintiff Ubu/Elements, Inc. claimed to have purchased all of the assets of Defendant Elements Personal Care, Inc. UBU/Elements accused the defendant of continuing to use the trademark AFTER THE GAME after the purchase. The Asset Purchase Agreement said this about the trademark in dispute: If you can’t… Continue reading
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The Contract Without End – What the Parties Did
I previously described a situation where unhappy licensees refused to acknowledge that there was a new licensor. Bruce Kirby, Inc. was the original licensor of the defendants’ rights to build Kirby Sailboats granted in the “Builder Agreements” and then in 2008 Bruce Kirby sold his business to Global Sailing Limited (GSL). The Builder Agreements didn’t… Continue reading
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The Contract Without End
This case relates to some kind of intellectual property, denominated in the agreement as “copyright” and “industrial design” rights, although the true nature of the rights was not examined by the court. It’s a mess of a problem, with a “solution” that turned out not to work quite as the parties planned. I’ll set out… Continue reading
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When Your Tax Strategy Is Inimical to Your Patent Strategy
Don’t let the tax department screw up your patent infringement case. Or, when they do, I hope they saved more on taxes than you lost on the patent case.1 W.L. Gore & Assocs., Inc. v. C.R. Bard, Inc. is an example of what can happen. In 1983, Gore set up a patent holding company, Gore… Continue reading
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The 2d Circuit Is Part Way There on Eden Toys
I have long complained about a defense that comes up in copyright cases, originating with the Second Circuit’s Eden Toys, Inc. v. Florelee Undergarment Co. Eden Toys involved a challenge to standing based on the timing of of an exclusive license. The case has heavily-quoted language about the challenge: In this case, in which the… Continue reading
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A Blessing in Disguise
Whole Foods lost a New York tax decision to the tune of $3.5 million, but in my opinion that’s a small price to pay to avoid a decision inconsistent with ownership of the WHOLE FOODS trademarks. Whole Foods Market Group, Inc. (WFMG), a Delaware corporation, is the operating company that distributes and sells natural and… Continue reading
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