Pamela Chestek
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Standing for Patent Infringement Just Got a Lot Easier
Mindspeed was the owner of seven patents and plaintiff WiAV Solutions LLC was a licensee, claiming to be exclusive. Prior to WiAV becoming a licensee, various predecessors-in-interest had granted the following licenses to third parties: Entity Potential Licensees Patents Rockwell Science Center Rockwell International and Affiliates All Conexant Subsidiaries Spin-offs Joint Development Partners (limited to… Continue reading
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Another Restaurant Name Dispute
Specimen One of the most common scenarios where trademark ownership disputes arise is between the owner of the building and the operator of the business in the building. There was the newsworthy “Tavern on the Green” case, where the City of New York successfully retained ownership of the name for the landmark building in Central… Continue reading
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Why Does a Subsidiary Need a License Agreement?
Bankruptcy. Not sure it would have made a difference in the outcome here, but it might have helped. Ham’s Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chelda, Inc., operated restaurants under the “Ham’s” brand: Ham’s Inc. filed for bankruptcy and RCR Marketing, LLC bought all of Ham’s “right, title and interest in the assets, property and rights,… Continue reading
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Unremarkable Manufacturer-Distributor Dispute
Wincam America, Inc., a distributor for CD Lab AG Multimedia Systems, filed applications to register the WINCAM and WINCAM AMERICA trademarks in the U.S. CD Lab, the foreign owner of the WINCAM mark, was unhappy. Wincam America set out the possible scenarios: (1) withdraw the applications, (2) CD Lab register the marks and Wincam America… Continue reading
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“Dad, Who Owns the Mark?”
Arredondo v. Arredondo is a classic family dispute over trademark ownership. Here, two brothers, Carlos and Caesar, were successful real estate developers–so successful that they established the Arredondo Properties Limited Partnership (APLP) to invest in projects and gather and distribute income to the Arredondo family for the next 200 years. APLP had no employees and… Continue reading
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The Writing on the Wall
Sometimes you should just know when to quit. Not that clients always go along with it, or that you have a choice, but some cases are just losers. The Daniel Group v. Service Performance Group, Inc. is one of those. The facts are simple – senior common law user (defendant Service Performance Group, Inc.) and… Continue reading
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Ninth Circuit Ignores the Law Again
One of the treats of writing a blog is that you can take issue with decisions – and so I take issue with a recent decision out of the Ninth Circuit in FreecycleSunnyvale v. Freecycle Network. The Ninth Circuit has now extended its questionable version of the naked licensing doctrine as last stated in Barcamerica… Continue reading
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At Least They’re Thinking About It
Neil Wilkof writing for the IPKat recently posted about joint ownership of a trademark, in particular what termination options might be available when the relationship falls apart. He’s done a great job wrestling down the pros and cons of the various ways one can deal with the disposal of the trademark once a joint venture… Continue reading
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A Routine Trademark Ownership Dispute
The case about the ownership of the LIGHT STAR TRAVEL trademark is almost blissfully routine. It simply boiled down to whether one entity acquired ownership of another – if so, the alleged acquiror owned the trademark, if not, the original owner retained ownership. It looks like the parties are acting without the advice of counsel,… Continue reading
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Assigned or Not?
The ‘086 patent was owned by Astra L and the ‘524 and ‘489 patents were owned AZAB. On, and effective on, June 28, 2006 and pursuant to an earlier-executed Asset Purchase Agreement, a third company, AstraZeneca-UK (“AZ-UK”), purported to assign the three patents to plaintiff Abraxis. Does Abraxis have standing? It’s not as clear-cut as… Continue reading
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