Pamela Chestek
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“Hustler is Larry Flynt, You Know”
The Flynt family, of HUSTLER fame, has been embroiled for years in several lawsuits over the ownership of the business and use of the HUSTLER mark. As you might expect for a business based on pornography, the corporate form was ever-changinga “morass” as described by the court—as the family tried to limit its liability, and… Continue reading
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How Damaging To Your Case is a Cancelled Trademark Registration?
I ran across a point about enforceability of a trademark that I don’t recall seeing before, which is that a trademark for which the registration was procured by fraud is unenforceable. The point is made in Firehouse Restaurant Group, Inc. v. Scurmont LLC, a case in which a jury held, and the court affirmed, that… Continue reading
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Standing for Correction of Inventorship
A brief primer on when an employer has standing to bring a claim under Section 256 of the Patent Act, asking that a non-party employee be added as an inventor: you’ll have to show that you will have rights to the patent you would not otherwise have, or, more specifically, that the employee had a… Continue reading
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Championship Cabbage Chucking
There is only one World Championship Cabbage Chuck (flash and sound warning). It’s hosted by St. Denis Parish in Shiocton, Wisconsin: The question, as one might expect on this blog, is who owns the trademark? The first narrator of the video is registrant Diana Van Straten, who obtained a registration on the Supplemental Register for… Continue reading
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An Assignment that Works Like a License
You’ll recall that there was a dispute over the ownership of the name of the famous Central Park restaurant “Tavern on the Green.” The restaurant owner owned two registrations for “Tavern on the Green” marks, one for restaurant services (the “Restaurant Mark” and “Restaurant Registration”) and one for oils and dressings (the “Oil and Dressing… Continue reading
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An Embarassment of Ownership Issues
Opposed mark TTAB decision Restifo v. Power Beverages, LLC has, count ’em, seven different trademark ownership theories discussed in it. My kind of case. In 2006 opposer Restifo and trademark applicant Kidd first discussed a business arrangement for making YING YANG VODKA. Kidd described his method of doing business this way: [a]s an alcohol beverage,… Continue reading
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Check the Chain of Title, Please
Folks, really. Check the assignment documents before you file the lawsuit, don’t assume the face of the patent is correct: At some point soon after PBS Inc. filed its motion to amend, it was discovered that PBS Ltd., not PBS Inc., is the assignee and owner of the ‘651 and ‘039 patents. PBS Inc. is… Continue reading
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The STOLICHNAYA Case Ends Again
In 2004 plaintiff Federal Treasury Enterprise Sojuzplodoimport (FTE) challenged defendant Spirit International B.V.’s (“SPI”) claim of ownership of the various STOLICHNAYA trademarks. In 2006 the district court dismissed almost all claims on a motion to dismiss, holding that the incontestable status of SPI’s registration meant that FTE couldn’t challenge ownership. In 2010 the Court of… Continue reading
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