Pamela Chestek
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Get Your Hot-N-Ready Pizza From Any Little Caesars
Pinnacle Pizza was a franchisee of Little Caesar Enterprises (LCE), the corporation that manages the “Little Caesars” franchises. Pinnacle Pizza created a promotional program for its stores called “Hot ‘N Ready,” which guaranteed a hot, medium pepperoni pizza for $4 within five minutes of the order every Tuesday. There was some discussion about who conceived… Continue reading
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Intracompany Patent Transfer Strikes Again: Two Years of Damages Foregone
The Coinco strategy is an attack on standing because the company has shuffled patent ownership around between corporate family members. If the plaintiff is not the family member that owns the patent, then it can’t bring the suit. In Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the patent-in-suit was owned by a wholly-owned… Continue reading
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The City Owns “Tavern on the Green”
You just can’t trust your readership. When the City of New York first claimed that it owned the name of the landmark New York City restaurant “Tavern on the Green,” I posted a poll asking readers’ opinion. The result from the many, many voters (15) was resoundingly in favor of the restaurant. We were wrong,… Continue reading
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It Should Be In the Public Domain
Artist Frank Gaylord created the bronze figures that are part of the Korean War Veterans Memorial. He sued the U.S. Postal Service when a photo of the sculptures was used on a stamp. In take one, the Court of Claims split the baby, deciding that the photo was a fair use of the sculpture, but also… Continue reading
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The Real MG Stands Up
The IP Finance blog has risen to the occasion, updating us on the dispute over ownership of the “MG” trademark. It has been resolved, for the moment, in favor of Nanjing Automobile Corporation. Nanjing has worldwide rights to the MG mark and the English company that claimed to own it was ordered to change its… Continue reading
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The Cloud Picks What Brand You Are Selling
Stanford Law School‘s Center for Internet and Society is not where I usually get content for my blog. But Larry Downs has written an interesting story about an experience with buying what could easily be characterized as a counterfeit camera battery on Amazon.com. The twist is that the vendor claims he didn’t brand the battery,… Continue reading
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There’s Always Your First Name
From the caption you can guess the story in MacKenzie-Childs, Ltd. v. Victoria and Richard MacKenzie-Childs: Victoria and Richard MacKenzie-Childs started a business, didn’t have the business anymore, and then there was a dispute over who owned the name. The MacKenzie-Childs story is a little different from Joseph Abboud but still comes out the same.… Continue reading
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Guide to Due Diligence
Neil Wilkof at the IP Finance blog has a great post on due diligence on IP ownership. The post walks through the various ways that IP rights can be acquired and transferred, as well as modalities of default rules in different countries. Definitely something to keep in the file drawer, if not stuck on the… Continue reading
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Off-Topic
It’s off-topic, but I encourage everyone to go take a look atopensource.com, a web site launched today by my employer, Red Hat. It’s a place to talk about open source and the power of working openly and collaboratively. Come join the conversation. Continue reading
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Can NBC Own the Intangibles?
Law.com is reporting that Conan O’Brien will have to give up the intellectual property rights in the characters and recurring skits that he developed during his NBC career. It’s not all entirely clear who owns what and who’s giving up what. The New York Times reports NBC claims to be co-owner of Triumph the Insult… Continue reading
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Learn more about me at my website, Chestek Legal
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