Pamela Chestek
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When Do You Exist?
Once I did some legal research on unincorporated associations. How do you know when you have one? Is your regular Friday night poker game an unincorporated association? (My aunt played poker with the same people for 50 years – surely that was an unincorporated association.) What about when members change, what happens then? When does… Continue reading
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An Invalid Assignment Isn’t Incontestable
I’m not even going to try to outline the convoluted competing ownership claims to the STOLICHNAYA trademark for vodka – you can read the decision for that. But the disagreement about who owned the mark led to a trademark infringement suit that plaintiff Federal Treasury Enterprises Sojuzplodoimport (FTE) brought against the record owner of the… Continue reading
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Check the Corporate Records – Every Time
Litigation is expensive and the last thing you need is unnecessary motion practice. On June 16, 1998 an inventor employed by patent owner Tri-Star executed an assignment to “Tri-Star Electronics International, Inc., its successors, legal representatives and assigns,” an Ohio corporation. On September 9, 1999, he executed another assignment to Tri-Star as an Ohio corporation. … Continue reading
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When Can You Assign an Intent-to-Use Application?
Test your knowledge of Section 10 of the Lanham Act! Here’s the set-up: Joint owners file an intent-to-use application. One owner assigns the mark to the other before the mark is used. Improper assignment of an intent-to-use application or not? TTABlog has the answer. The text of this work is licensed under a Creative Commons… Continue reading
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Due Diligence Matters
Pacific Coast Trailers, LLC v. Cozad Trailer Sales, LLC is a tale of failed due diligence. Reliance Trailer Manufacturing Corp. (“Reliance Mfg.”) owned the trademarks RELIANCE, STURDYWELD, ALLOY and COMET. It assigned the latter three, but not RELIANCE, to a sibling company, Reliance Trailer Co., LLC (“Reliance LLC”). Reliance LLC defaulted on some loans and… Continue reading
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Is “Waji” Confusingly Similar to “Uwajimaya”?
Uwajimaya, Inc. claims that its business is known by the diminutive “Waji” and that it orally (uh-oh) licensed the Waji mark to Defendant Concourse Concessions LLC. Concourse Concessions apparently begs to differ on ownership, having successfully registered “Waji” in its own name. Which doesn’t explain its pending effort to register “Uwajimaya” too. Currently its application… Continue reading
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Why You Don’t Allow Assignment of Trademark License Agreements
Here’s a case caption that gives you pause: “Hard Rock Cafe International (USA), Inc. v. Hard Rock Hotel Holdings, LLC et al.” Ryan Gile at the Las Vegas Trademark Attorney has done the heavy lifting on figuring out who sued whom and why. It’s a license relationship gone sour: the original trademark owner sold the… Continue reading
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Burn the Drafts
I previously blogged about a dispute between Bodum USA and La Cafetière over the sale of French press coffeemakers. Corporate entity Bodum bought out one of the shareholders, Martin. The purchase agreement included future restraints on Martin’s use of the conveyed trademarks and, it argued, on the trade dress in the pot configuration itself. Martin… Continue reading
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Yes, I Might Have
Petitioners, circa 1988 John Welch at the TTABlog added a new category, “Would You Have Petitioned?” In the case of Augustine’s Spiritual Goods, Inc. v. Augustine’s Eternal Gifts, LLC, maybe I would have. The decision as argued and decided was a no-brainer, but it looks like there’s a disconnect between the case that was argued… Continue reading
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A Contract Isn’t “Intellectual Property” Just Because You’ve Named It That
Thanks to Bill Bryner at Kilpatrick Stockton for a report on a recent 4th Circuit decision. It’s about copyright and furniture, which leads to discussion of some of the more unusual intellectual property legal theories. I’m interested in the challenge to ownership of the copyright in the furniture designs. In 1994, a predecessor company, Universal… Continue reading
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