trademark
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Trick Question
A debtor-in-possession had a contract it wanted to assign. The contract included a trademark license, but it was somewhat unusual in structure. For starters, it was a trademark sublicense, not a direct license, for the mark “Jag Jeans”: There is no registered trademark for “Jag Jeans,” although there are several for “Jag” owned by Jag… Continue reading
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The Mongols Have Their Colors Back (For Real)
The whole Mongols trademark seizure case is a little confusing, so this story is put together from a few different decisions in two different cases. Two marks, the MONGOLS word mark for “association services, namely, promoting the interests of persons interested in the recreation of riding motorcycles” and the “Image Mark“ for “jackets and t-shirts”… Continue reading
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How to Steal a Trademark
You don’t see it happen much at all, but a band managed to successfully, including on appeal, claim ownership of the band’s name, despite contractual agreements that conceded the name was owned by the original management company and its successor. We’re talking about an unregistered trademark here, for the band Exposé. (There was an early… Continue reading
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Sibling Rivalry
I have sympathy for small businesses. Just working stiffs, plumbers for example, trying make a living day to day. You have to watch the pennies, you’ve got equipment costs, rent and salaries and rising health insurance costs and there’s only so much the market will bear. Trademarks are going to be really low on the… Continue reading
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The Coup de Grâce for Pooh?
One opposed mark The TTABlog brings us the last (?) chapter in the Winnie the Pooh story – well, it’s the last pending action at least, after a state court litigation, an appeal of it, a federal court litigation, and an appeal of it, all of which SSI lost. But never say never. The parties,… Continue reading
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When Are You a “Distributor”?
There’s a presumption in manufacturer-distributor cases that the manufacturer owns the mark. Is the presumption deserved? What is fundamentally different between a manufacturer-distributor relationship and one where a company contracts for the manufacture of its product (an OEM relationship), when there isn’t the same presumption? Does it fall into one category or the other just… Continue reading
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Abandoned, No Surprise
Some cases make you wonder more about the lawyers. Did they come in to the situation too late and just have a mess to clean up? Have they counseled their clients about their odds? Original Rex, LLC v. Beautiful Brands International, LLC just looks like such a long shot, but some clients can’t be deterred.… Continue reading
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Surprise – Wittmann Can’t Call His Product “Wittmann”
This is kind of a no-brainer of an ownership case. I’m blogging it more for the sake of completeness than anything else.Defendant Dietmar Wittmann, an employee of the Medical College of Wisconsin, invented a surgical patch for abdominal surgery. He assigned the rights to the patch (the case doesn’t say exactly what rights, but we’ll… Continue reading
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There Has to Be Confusion
Plaintiff DeliverMed transferred its marks for pharmaceutical delivery – “DeliverMed,” “Right at Home” and this logo to defendant Medicate Pharmacy as part of a joint business venture. The venture failed, but Medicate Pharmacy continued to use the marks to promote its own business, enclosing a card bearing the marks with every prescription and using the… Continue reading
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