Pamela Chestek
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I Hate Copyright Termination
I mean, I hate to write about it. It’s convoluted, tedious, and the cases don’t generally tell the good juicy stories that I like so much. Luckily for all of us though, there is someone who loves to write about copyright termination, Dave Fagundes. He has a blog devoted to the topic and it’s awesome.… Continue reading
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The Wrist-Rocket Factors
Small businesses or community organizations, like restaurants or well-meaning citizens running a charitable fund-raising event, often don’t have many formalities around their operation, so when there is a dispute over the ownership of the name it’s bound to be very messy. But I don’t think there is any more vexing trademark ownership situation than that… Continue reading
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Joinder of an Unwilling Co-owner
On the left we have a disinterested patent owner; there was a mixup about the status of an inventor, Bruce Draper, so he assigned his rights in what ultimately became the ‘321 patent to the University of New Mexico (UNM) rather than his employer, Sandia. UNM realized the mistake and assigned to Sandia “those rights… Continue reading
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Executing on Copyrights to Satisfy a Judgment
I previously reported on the matter of Hendricks & Lewis PLLC v. Clinton, that is, a law firm versus George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic fame. Clinton owed Hendricks & Lewis a lot of money but didn’t pay. In the opinion I previously covered, the lower court appointed a receiver who was given the authority to maximize… Continue reading
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Righthaven, the Gift that Keeps on Giving
I’ve written before (recursive link) about copyright registrations by photo agencies. Rather than individual photographers registering their own works, it is common practice for a photo agency to periodically register the works of many photographers en masse. As described in a recent 9th Circuit opinion, the process was created collaboratively by a photography trade association… Continue reading
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Use Inuring to the Licensor
While I write about all the intellectual property disciplines, I have a soft spot for trademark ownership disputes. And I was, frankly, surprised by today’s case—it was not the outcome I expected when I first started reading. Tammy Goldthorpe filed an application for the mark SLIPPERY WIZARD for asphalt release agent. The application was opposed… Continue reading
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Only One Recovery
Just a brief decision on the damages award for infringement of a work that is the embodiment of more than one copyright—you only get one recovery. Here, the case was about “pirated” music and music has two copyrights, the copyright in the composition and the copyright in the sound performance. In a short but thorough… Continue reading
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Zombie Brand Rising From the Dead?
I just watched the most recent episode of Mad Men, “The Strategy.” The “strategy” is for an advertising campaign for the Burger Chef chain of fast food restaurants. Here’s the closing shot of the episode, with Pete, Peggy and Don sitting in a Burger Chef: Anyone eaten at a Burger Chef lately—anyone? According to Wikipedia, there aren’t… Continue reading
About Me
Learn more about me at my website, Chestek Legal
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- copyright
- domain name
- moral rights
- patent
- right of publicity
- social media
- trade dress
- trade libel
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