Pamela Chestek
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Trademark License or Trademark Assignment?
In suit is what’s styled as a license to use the mark BUTTERNUT for bread in parts of Illinois. Interstate Bakeries (IBC) is the record owner of the BUTTERNUT mark and Plaintiffs Lewis Brothers Bakeries Inc. and Chicago Baking Company (LBB/CBC) use the BUTTERNUT mark. Interstate is currently in bankruptcy, which means it can reject… Continue reading
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Someone Screwed Up
The Patent Prospector summarizes a Federal Circuit review of a botched effort to claim priority to an earlier-filed application. The child was filed without the first page, so there was no express claim of priority to its parent. Result? Patent invalid because it was anticipated by the factual, but not legal, predecessor. Post here. This… Continue reading
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You Can’t Fire Me, I Own the Copyright
This is an old case I’ve been hanging on to for awhile. It’s a situation where the rights asserted are in lieu of an entirely different claim. Here, the plaintiff was ticked off he was fired and retaliated through copyright law. Pro se plaintiff Joseph Valdez was a real estate salesman working for defendant Coldwell… Continue reading
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AU Optronics Indeed Has Standing
So who owns the patent? “On the record presented, the Court concludes that AUO has demonstrated by credible chain of title evidence that it is the assignee of” U.S. Patent No. 6,689,629. Apparently realizing its potential problem, IBM US had also filed assignments from the inventors to IBM US in May 2007 (the lawsuit was… Continue reading
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Astaire v. Astaire
My favorite kind of spat, family. In the plaintiff’s corner we have Robyn Astaire, widow of Fred Astaire. How could I not have a gratuitous embedded video of the master: In the defendant’s corner we have her stepdaughter, Phyllis Ava Astaire McKenzie, along with two other individuals and Career Transition for Dancers, Inc. What is… Continue reading
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Who Owns the Patent?
Here’s the assignment history, you be the judge: 1960: IBM Japan enters into a patent assignment agreement with IBM World Trade. January 1, 1963: IBM acquires from IBM World Trade all patents IBM World Trade has or thereafter acquires. June 25, 1981: amendment to 1960 agreement in between IBM Japan and IBM World Trade, stating… Continue reading
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Very Helpful Federal Circuit Explication of Standing Analysis
Lawsuits about standing in patent cases are a dime a dozen: you can find some here. But this case has some really nice summary if you need to get a quick take on the legal standard. First, here are the possible standing iterations: Under Aspex Eyewear, a patent may not have multiple separate owners for… Continue reading
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Can a Trade Secret Licensee State a Claim?
It can in Wisconsin. In Metso Minerals Industries, Inc. v. FLSmidth-Excel LLC, there was no question that the plaintiff, Metso, was only a licensee of the secret, not the owner. Two of the defendants were former employees of Metso and one of its licensees, but now are employees of the corporate defendant Excel. Metso accused… Continue reading
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- social media
- trade dress
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