• trade dress

    Who Should Own the Trade Dress?

    by  • July 24, 2017 • trade dress, trademark • 0 Comments

    Oneida Group, Inc. v. Steelite International U.S.A. Inc. is a demonstration of how our jurisprudence is essentially useless in deciding trademark ownership claims. The dispute is over ownership of the trade dress in the highly successful “Botticelli” and “Nexus” tableware patterns, part of Oneida’s “Sant’ Andrea” line: The tableware is considered premier and sold...

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    Zombie Brand Rising From the Dead?

    by  • May 25, 2014 • trade dress, trademark • 0 Comments

    I just watched the most recent episode of Mad Men, “The Strategy.” The “strategy” is for an advertising campaign for the Burger Chef chain of fast food restaurants. Here’s the closing shot of the episode, with Pete, Peggy and Don sitting in a Burger Chef: Anyone eaten at a Burger Chef lately—anyone? According to Wikipedia, there...

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    The Danger of Overreaching

    by  • March 11, 2012 • copyright, patent, trade dress, trademark

    drawing and specimen for plaintiff’s trade dress registration Plaintiff Lauren Brenner started Pure Power Boot Camp, a military-style exercise facility. She hired the defendants and they decided to start a competing business called Warrior Fitness Boot Camp. The defendants behaved despicably; while still her employees they had one’s client/girlfriend promote Warrior Fitness to Pure...

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    Burn the Drafts

    by  • September 20, 2010 • trade dress, trademark

    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. ...

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    Pressing Onward

    by  • April 24, 2009 • trade dress, trademark

    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...

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