trademark
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Ninth Circuit Ignores the Law Again
One of the treats of writing a blog is that you can take issue with decisions – and so I take issue with a recent decision out of the Ninth Circuit in FreecycleSunnyvale v. Freecycle Network. The Ninth Circuit has now extended its questionable version of the naked licensing doctrine as last stated in Barcamerica… Continue reading
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At Least They’re Thinking About It
Neil Wilkof writing for the IPKat recently posted about joint ownership of a trademark, in particular what termination options might be available when the relationship falls apart. He’s done a great job wrestling down the pros and cons of the various ways one can deal with the disposal of the trademark once a joint venture… Continue reading
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A Routine Trademark Ownership Dispute
The case about the ownership of the LIGHT STAR TRAVEL trademark is almost blissfully routine. It simply boiled down to whether one entity acquired ownership of another – if so, the alleged acquiror owned the trademark, if not, the original owner retained ownership. It looks like the parties are acting without the advice of counsel,… Continue reading
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The Hard Rock Hotel Fires Back
Photo by David Herrera Things are getting more interesting in Hard Rock Cafe International (USA), Inc. v. Hard Rock Hotel Holdings, LLC. As previously blogged, this is a spat between a trademark licensor and licensee where the licensor claims a breach of the license agreement. Hard Rock Hotel has fired back in its answer: The… Continue reading
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The Heebie Jeebies
As former counsel for Reebok, my eye caught on “reabok.com”; it was a clear typosquat. I looked more carefully at the list of domain names in dispute and it wasn’t the only typosquat or cybersquat: belis.com, daffy.com, epsun.com, fivebars.com, gunit.com, helmsley.com, livs.com, mascaron.com, oncologics.com, pirreli.com, profesia.com, reabok.com, remolacha.com, satz.com, sunlet.com, vespas.com, vitallium.com, zire.com, and redroof.org. … Continue reading
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The Difference Between a First Name and a Trademark
“Zoe” may indeed be used as a trademark by Renault, which means, according to the lawyer for two plaintiffs named Zoe Renault, that they will “now be subject to a lifetime of ribbing and that, as they grew older, would be prey to such quips as ‘Can I see your airbags?’ or ‘Can I shine… Continue reading
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Unintended Consequences
It may make business sense to put ownership of related trademarks in different subsidiaries. Under In re Wella, one can generally register similar marks owned by sibling companies, as long as it’s done properly. But In re Koolatron Corp. discloses a risk I hadn’t thought about before, that is, that the registrations won’t serve the… Continue reading
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When Do You Exist?
Once I did some legal research on unincorporated associations. How do you know when you have one? Is your regular Friday night poker game an unincorporated association? (My aunt played poker with the same people for 50 years – surely that was an unincorporated association.) What about when members change, what happens then? When does… Continue reading
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