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 →I just ran across this older opinion upon seeing a more recent opinion in the case on attorneys’ fees. The situation was interesting enough to make me go back and find the earlier decision. Defendant Otkrytoe Aktsionernoe Obshchestvo “Spartak” is a Belarusian company specializing in the production of chocolate. Spartak entered into a non-exclusive...
Read more →The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey owns the site on which the World Trade Center in New York sits. The original two towers complex was completed in 1973 and included the “Top of the World” observation deck and gift shops, which were operated under a lease with the Port Authority. As...
Read more →In my last post I posed questions about the validity of two registrations. If you guessed that both registrations were valid, you were right. The first application was filed and assigned at a time when the entity had been administratively dissolved. DC Bocce claimed that the non-profit still had the capacity to sue and...
Read more →Non-profit DC Bocce League was incorporated in DC in 2004. Its status was revoked in 2007 but it continued to operate through 2010. It filed its formal articles of dissolution on November 4, 2010. The respondent, owner of the challenged registrations, is Major League Bocce, LLC d/b/a DC Bocce League. It is a Delaware...
Read more →I have a crush on the trademark assignment agreement of the Tavern on the Green mark. It’s a tour de force of drafting. In a nutshell, for decades the City of New York leased the premises for the famous Tavern on the Green to a restauranteur. In 2009 the restauranteur lost its lease, but...
Read more →I am quite puzzled by this decision. It is designated by the court as “not for publication,” which may explain why the reasoning is so unclear. In March 1989, John Z. DeLorean, creator of the DeLorean car, entered into a license agreement with Universal Pictures, licensing the use of the car in “Back to...
Read more →Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
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