Pamela Chestek
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Wrist-Rocket Factors Applied
Haggar International Corp. v. United Company for Food Industry Corp. is a fairly classic manufacturer-distributor dispute. The conflict started over twenty years ago and the suit has been pending for nine years, which explains why the parties have widely differing recollection of relevant events. Hat’s off to the court for sorting out the mess. The… Continue reading
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Read This Before Assigning an Unregistered Trademark in the UK
IP Finance has an important post for those who do international transactional work. It seems that under UK law, an unregistered trademark, unlike a registered trademark, may NOT be assigned without the the business to which it is attached. In Iliffe News and Media Ltd & Ors v Revenue & Customs [2012] UKFTT 696 (TC)… Continue reading
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Co-ownership Is Not Privity
A co-owner of a copyrighted work sues for infringement of the work. The court holds that the defendant had been granted a license by another co-owner, not a party, and therefore there was no infringement. The non-party co-owner then sues for copyright infringement in a new suit. Collateral estoppel or not? “Not,” according to the… Continue reading
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What is an “E-Signature”?
I just blogged about a case where an email was inadequate to transfer ownership of copyright. It wasn’t because it was email, though; an email exchange can do the trick, as was the case in Vergara Hermosilla v. The Coca-Cola Company (blogged here). There is a federal statute that allows for electronic signature of documents,… Continue reading
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You Don’t Really Need a Writing
I recently reported on a case where the plaintiff successfully claimed that a trademark hadn’t been assigned, despite the fact that virtually all of the other assets of the company were assigned. Jomaps, LLC v. D-Mand Better Products, LLC is the opposite case. The principle is that the assignment of a business in its entirety… Continue reading
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Questionable Decision on Assigning an ITU
I recently wrote about a case which held that, while there was an assignment of an invention, a continuation-in-part application was not assigned because it had new matter. I’m not sure if the outcome was right; at least I suspect that many drafters of assignment language haven’t thought about it that way. The same decision… Continue reading
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Who Owns the Shop Right?
The decision in Ultimax Cement Manufacturing Corp. v. CTS Cement Manufacturing Corp. begins “After a four-week trial in this decade-old patent infringement case, the jury was unable to reach a verdict.” Imagine how deflated the parties and their lawyers were. But the court was able to sort things out on the parties’ renewed motions for… Continue reading
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Another Band Name Ownership Decision
Ok, I’m very confused by the decision in the TTAB case O.T.H. Enterprises, Inc. v. Vasquez. What’s confusing is that the Board discusses, in two separate parts of the decision, ownership of the mark and priority. I don’t really get that – if the case is about who owns the mark, what other mark is… Continue reading
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