Do you need to own a trademark to succeed in an infringement claim? Not necessarily. The plaintiff, I&I Hair Corporation, now owns the registration for the trademark EZBRAID. Except that it originally didn’t; the registration was owned by Eunja Son, a principal of the plaintiff. I&I Hair sued the defendant, Beauty Plus Trading Co.,...
Read more →In 2012, the South Carolina Diocese of The Episcopal Church declared that it disassociated from parent The Episcopal Church, a hierarchical church. The common understanding is that it was because of the ordination of gay clergy and acceptance of same-sex unions, although the disassociating diocese differs with that characterization. As a result there are...
Read more →In transactional work, don’t think just about what you’re getting, but also what you don’t want the target to do in the future. Three family members with the surname Traeger had a business in wood pellet grills. They sold the business to plaintiff Traeger Pellet Grills. At least one of the Traeger family later...
Read more →Ownership of the trademark for a location-based business, like a restaurant, a theater, or a hotel, is always interesting. I don’t think there is any consistent outcome; it depends on the very specific facts of the given situation. Today’s installment is about a little bakery called The Long Grove Apple Haus. The original business...
Read more →Apparently someone is still interested in the Amiga operating system. In 2009, non-party Amiga, Inc. and defendant Hyperion Entertainment C.V.B.A. entered into a settlement agreement that resolved a number of lawsuits between them. The plaintiff, Cloanto Corp., was a licensee of Amiga at the time of the settlement agreement and mentioned in the agreement...
Read more →I asked who owns the RESTORADERM trademark? When I read the facts in the Third Circuit opinion I thought it was a no-brainer. But apparently I was wrong, because the district court came out one way and the appeals court the other. Sköld won in the trial court. Galderma moved for summary judgment on...
Read more →The opening sentence: “This case proves once again that people will fight for a catchy name.” My kind of case. Plaintiff Thomas Sköld coined the name “Restoraderm” for a proprietary skin care formulation. (When the court uses the word “coined,” you know it has grasped the difference between a word and a trademark.) In...
Read more →The government has been trying to seize the MONGOLS trademark for over ten years. You can read my previous posts about it here, here, here and here. The Mongol Nation, an unincorporated association, owned or owns several registrations for a trademark, service marks and collective membership marks for the word mark MONGOLS, the riding...
Read more →We have a story of three firearm and ammunition companies. The parties in the case are DoubleTap Defense, LLC (DTD), a company that had an application to register the trademark DOUBLETAP for pistols, and Hornady Manufacturing Co., owner of several TAP-formative registrations for ammunition. The third company, not a party, is Double Tap Ammunition...
Read more →I know there are few legal topics sexier than bankruptcy, but we’ve now reached the pinnacle of sexiness – bankruptcy AND trademark. I mean, how much more fulfilled will my life get?! Pending before the Supreme Court and set for hearing on February 20 is Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC. I wrote...
Read more →Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
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