Pamela Chestek
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You Really Need It Signed
If you snoozed through biz org class in law school thinking that you weren’t going to be a transactional lawyer, perhaps you better go back and brush up on the law of agency. That’s what snagged Universal Music Group and its related company, UMG Recordings. That, and the pressure to get the deal done. Artists… Continue reading
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Don’t Get Greedy
Tahir Mahmood believed that he was a co-inventor of a RIM patent. He hadn’t worked for RIM, but it was undisputed that in 1995 he provided information to RIM about his own PageMail technology. In 1998 RIM filed a patent application for the patent that in 2001 ultimately matured into U.S. Patent No. 6,219,694. In… Continue reading
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Way Too Many Co-owners
International Importers v. International Spirits & Wines, LLC is, at bottom, a manufacturer-distributor dispute. It’s also a lesson in how not to handle trademark ownership. Fernbrew Pty. Ltd. Corp., an Australian company, is the owner of trademark registrations for WALLABY CREEK for wine in Australia, New Zealand, the EU, and Canada, but the U.S. trademark… Continue reading
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Salba United
I previously blogged about a case, Salba Corp. v. Ralston, where there were two different owners of SALBA-formative marks. Salba Corp. owned the trademark SALBA (a varietal of chia seed) and the Ralstons then assigned their SALBASMART and SALBA BALANCE marks to Salba Corp. with a license back and a reversion if Salba Corp. breached… Continue reading
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Trademark Troll Extraordinaire
We occasionally hear about trademark trolling, but Premier Pool Management Corp. v. Lusk takes it to a whole new level. Plaintiff Premier Pool Management Corp. (“PPMC”) offers swimming pool and spa construction services through licensees doing business as Premier Pool & Spas. It first used the PREMIER POOL & SPAS mark in 1989 and was using it in interstate… Continue reading
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A Successful Termination of Copyright
The first decision on a termination of a copyright grant under Section 203 of the Copyright Act is out of the gate. It’s a bit of a no-brainer though; in fact, the case was decided on a motion to dismiss. Victor Willis was one of the “Village People,” but more importantly he was one of… Continue reading
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There Aren’t Regular Work Hours Anymore
I haven’t seen a lot of material to blog about, so I’ve resorted to writing about a fairly ho-hum case, albeit a court of appeals decision, albeit an unpublished one. Unless you have a compulsion to read all work-made-for-hire decisions, or at least those involving software development, you can probably just move on. I think… Continue reading
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I Learned What “Dubitante” Means
For purposes of patent standing, there are generally three categories of ownership described: patent owner, exclusive licensee, and non-exclusive licensee. The first has the right to sue, an exclusive licensee must join the assignee in any patent infringement suit, and the non-exclusive licensee has no standing at all. But the first category can be subdivided.… Continue reading
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The Missing Inventor
I love cases where the defendant goes back and finds another potential inventor. Stemcells, Inc. v. Neuralstem, Inc. shows some of the ways this can play out – in this case, standing, and the rarely-invoked bona fide purchaser in good faith defense. The patents in dispute are 7,115,418entitled “Methods of proliferating undifferentiated neural cells” and… Continue reading
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