trademark
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The Danger of Overreaching
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 Power… Continue reading
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BODY UP Going to the District Court
The BODY UP decision at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board has been appealed to the District Court for the District of Columbia.Body Up Dist. Ct. ComplaintThe text of this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Continue reading
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When the Law Fails
Sometimes I find great dissonance between the application of trademark law and the marketplace realities. The parties line all their legal ducks up in a nice straight row, but there’s just such an inconsistency between what the legal outcome is and what consumers’ understanding of the situation might be. E & J Gallo v. Proximo… Continue reading
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The Yankees Still Own Their Logo
Last April there was an interesting complaint filed (blogged here) by a woman who claimed that her uncle, Kenneth Timur, now deceased, had designed the New York Yankees logo in 1936 but hadn’t been compensated for it. The plaintiff’s proof of authorship was the fact that her uncle, when he revised the logo in 1952,… Continue reading
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Just Another Skirmish or the War?
Registrant’s goods Cancellation action Paul Audio, Inc. v. Zhou is just one glimpse of what clearly is a much larger dispute. Baoning Zhou, an individual, is the owner of a registration for the mark C-MARK for audio equipment. Petitioner Paul Audio, Inc., owned by Li Gong, had also applied to register the C-MARK mark for… Continue reading
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Zombie Department Stores Rise (as ugly t-shirts)
There’s been a fair amount written about “heritage,” “dead” or “zombie” brands, including by me. These are brands that aren’t being used anymore by the original owner, but they still have resonance with consumers. A third party comes along specifically with the intent of exploiting the consumer recognition by creating a new offering around the… Continue reading
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Must All Trademark Owners be Joined?
Yesterday’s post covered the relative ownership of the trademarks YOGI and YOGI TEA between cross-claimant Bibiji Inderjit Kaur Puri (“Bibiji”) and Golden Temple of Oregon (“GTO”), where an arbitration held that Bibiji was the owner of the trademarks. GTO therefore dropped its infringement claim against defendant Wai Lana Productions, but Bibiji’s claim against Wai Lana… Continue reading
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Who Owns the Mark Used by a Bunch of People?
Like life, trademark ownership can get complicated. About a year and a half ago I reported on a brewing dispute over the ownership of the trademark YOGI TEA. Golden Temple of Oregon (GTO) sued Wai Lana Productions for trademark infringement of its YOGI and YOGI TEA mark. Wai Lana defended itself on the basis that… Continue reading
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When You Can Change the Name of the Registrant
A short primer from the TTAB on when one can correct the name of an incorrectly named registrant and when instead the application is void ab initio. In Key West Innkeeper’s Association, Inc. v. The Popular House, Inc., the application was filed in the name of “Carlson,Jody,E”, a corporation, then the applicant was changed during… Continue reading
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