Property, intangible

a blog about ownership of intellectual property rights and its licensing

Pamela Chestek

  • Shades of Spam Arrest

    Here’s an interesting story on the derivation of the word “tabloid” for a newspaper. It’s a trademark registered in the United Kingdom in 1884 for compressed medicines, a portmanteau of “tablet” and “ovoid.” The use of the mark was later expanded to tea, first aid kits, snake bite kits, photographic chemicals, and other goods. Burroughs… Continue reading

  • Cut Your Losses

    The Exclusive Rights blog reports on a case from the Supreme Court of Indiana, where one company hired another to design and host its web site. An often-told story; the hiring company stopped paying the bills and the designing company shut down the web site, then sued on the bill. In response, the defendant counterclaimed… Continue reading

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  • An Assignment of the Contract, Not the Patent

    Applera Corp. v. MP Biomedicals, LLC is an infrequent occurrence, a patent-related case in state court. In the case, the two original contracting parties entered into a royalty-bearing patent license for the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) process for amplification of DNA. The license included terms for ascertaining royalties based on whether the products would infringe… Continue reading

  • It’s Only One Mark

    Sometimes the TTAB is an alternative reality. It’s happening right now as it struggles with trademark ownership disputes. In Arturo Santana Gallego v. Santana’s Grill, Inc., there was family falling out. The TTAB reached a conclusion that may be right, but in a way that is so doctrinally irrelevant that we can’t know. The cast… Continue reading

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  • MGA Smackdown

    MGA Entertainment has asked for, and was granted, an expedited hearing for a stay of the injunction pending its appeal to the Ninth Circuit. The hearing will be May 18. In expected fashion, MGA couldn’t pass up an opportunity for a smackdown in its press release: Mattel’s iteration of the brand will necessarily bear little… Continue reading

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  • Automatic Assignment or Agreement to Assign?

    Patent numbers 5,138,459, 6,094,219, 6,233,010 and 6,323,899 had three named inventors, Marc Roberts, Matthew Chikosky and Jerry Speasl. They invented the subject matter of the patents while working for Mirage Systems, Inc., then formed their own company, Personal Computer Cameras, Inc. St. Clair Intellectual Properties invested in the company, and when Personal Computer Cameras was… Continue reading

  • 1/10th

    Intellectual property law is generally considered a scheme for the protection of non-rivalrous, non-excludeable goods. In other words, because an idea once disclosed can be used by all, laws are needed to provide exclusivity so that the inventor can capture some reward for his or her work. Jefferson: “Society may give an exclusive right to… Continue reading

  • Well, It Was Probably Assigned

    The TTABlog reports on a case about the mark RUSSKAYA for vodka that addresses two different attacks on trademark ownership. One is a fairly standard charge of abandonment. The second is a standing attack, based on a claim that the intent to use trademark application was improperly assigned. Under Section 10(a)(1) of the Lanham Act,… Continue reading

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  • Mattel $100 Million Richer, For Now

    Yesterday the Bratz court dealt with a boatload of motions, most importantly MGA Entertainment’s motion for remittitur of the $100 million verdict. MGA Entertainment claimed that the $100 verdict was duplicative, and that the jury really meant that the verdict should be $20 million. The MGA parties argue that Mattel had a singular theory of… Continue reading

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  • Pressing Onward

    Sometimes assigning the trademark isn’t enough. In the 1950’s, Société des Anciens Etablissements Martin S.A. (“Martin”) owned the design patents for and distributed the “Chambord” and “Melior” French press coffeemakers. In 1983, Viel Castel, a majority shareholder of Martin, and Jrgen Jepsen Bodum established Bodum, Inc. (“Bodum”). Bodum had the distribution rights to the Chambord… Continue reading

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