Pamela Chestek
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MGA Entertainment Wins Bratz! (For Now)
Image from Counterfeit Chic “Staggering blow.”“Major reversal.”“Plastic cat fight of epic proportions.” “Astonishing loss.” It just doesn’t get more dramatic than this. In the everlasting dispute over ownership of the Bratz doll franchise, Mattel’s original $100 million verdict in the first trial is gone. Now Mattel gets a paltry $10,000 on an intentional interference claim… Continue reading
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Guess Confusion Isn’t Such a Big Deal
Gosh, such a juicy fact pattern; I read it with baited breath waiting to find out who owns the trademark. You can’t help but love a story that has stuff like this in it: “You have just 48 [hours] to decide…. After this deadline, Chen, Shenda, and I will have only one goal in our… Continue reading
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Missing the Question
Sometimes decisions seem expedient instead of right, albeit perhaps no harm, no foul. VocalSpace, LLC v. Lorenso is one of those decisions. Defendant Daniel Lorenso is a software developer and former employee of plaintiff VocalSpace, a company that designs web-based internet marketing and streaming media systems. VocalSpace claimed that Lorenso “stole” VocalSpace’s source code and… Continue reading
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Bringing a Copyright Suit Is Not as Easy as It Looks
Here’s an exercise in frustration that killed a copyright infringement lawsuit twice: 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998 – Plaintiff Kunkel creates copyrightable works. November 2001 – Kunkel files bankruptcy. Does not list copyrights as part of estate.February, 2003 – Kunkel files copyright applications for works created pre-bankruptcy in his own name.March, 2006 – Bankruptcy… Continue reading
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A Good Tacking Decision
Boathouse Group, Inc. v. TigerLogic Corp. is a priority dispute between two trademarks for software used to enhance the functionality of social media sites. The plaintiff’s mark was POSTPOST, located at postpo.st, and the defendant’s was POSTPOST, located at postpost.com. Given the identicality of the marks, the only question was whether the services were similar… Continue reading
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The TTAB Comes to Boston
John Welch has done his usual stellar job of convincing the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to come to Boston to conduct a hearing. Sponsored by the Trademark Committee of the Boston Patent Law Association, the Board will sit at the Northeastern University School of Law on April 29th in the afternoon. The case is… Continue reading
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The New Federal Law of Patent Assignment
In Abraxis Bioscience, Inc. v. Navinta, LLC last November, a panel of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit examined a set of transactional documents and held that the plaintiff did not own the patents when the suit was filed and therefore did not have standing (blog post here). This wasn’t your run-of-the mill… Continue reading
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Why the Paperwork is Important
Defendant River West Brands LLC is a company that, in its own words, “identifies, acquires, redevelops, and monetizes iconic brand intellectual property that is significantly distressed.” In other words, its business is in zombie brands. I previously blogged on some of the methods the company uses here. It’s a business model with fairly significant challenges,… Continue reading
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Revoking an Implied Nonexclusive Copyright License
Jason Waggoner developed a software program in the 1990s. Later, he and two other shareholders created a company called Nearstar, Inc., which distributed “Dataserver” software which was based almost entirely on Waggoner’s software. Nearstar distributed the software for nine years, including versions 3.2, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0 and 6.2. Waggoner admitted that he granted Nearstar permission… Continue reading
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When You Should Hire an Investigator
This case just stinks. I can’t say it’s wrongly decided, it just seems so unfair. The dispute is over ownership of the trademark ZORLAC for skateboards and apparel. Opposer Jeff Newton started a skateboard business in 1976 under the ZORLAC mark, incorporating in 1986. 1984 ad But shortly thereafter he was in financial trouble. He… Continue reading
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- social media
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