trademark
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Mowing Trademarks Down
A recent New York case explores a trademark licensor’s tort liability for defective merchandise, but with a twist: the licensor is a wholly-owned trademark holding company. The biggest lesson from the case is “get the left hand talking to the right.” Here, a low-probability, ultimately unsuccessful defense in a tort case only succeeded in providing… Continue reading
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Bratz Arguments
The parties in the Barbie vs. Bratz battle were in court Monday on post-trial motions (blogged here). Read the news here. © 2008 Pamela Chestek Continue reading
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The Dark Underbelly of Teddy Bear Puppies
I’ve mentioned in the past that the naked licensing doctrine has taken on a life of its own disconnected from the statutory basis for it, abandonment. Fuller v. Heintz/Candee takes the naked licensing doctrine to an extreme, apparently holding that only one “naked license” is enough to invalidate the trademark. The case is tantalizing in… Continue reading
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The Melody Can Barely be Heard
Class 46 brings our attention to the auction of a Spanish brand for a department store chain “Galerías Preciados.” Fogasa, an agency of the Spanish Ministry of Labor and Education, acquired the family of marks as the result of a bankruptcy. Fogasa has tried to auction the brand three times; in 1997 the value was… Continue reading
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What’s on Your Pocket?
Not surprisingly, Levi Strauss & Co. v. Abercrombie & Fitch Trading Co. is a case about enforcing the “arcuate” pocket stitching design on Levi’s jeans. Levi’s is not one to be meek in enforcing its registered trademark, shown below:But it’s butting up against a litigious player in its own right, Abercrombie & Fitch (various dockets… Continue reading
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Trade Dress and Copyright
This is the final post in the series on Tacori Enterprises v. Rego Manufacturing. As well as claiming copyright in the ring design, Tacori also claimed that the ring design was Tacori’s protected trade dress and sued for trademark infringement. Tacori has filed a trademark application for registration of the trade dress in the ring… Continue reading
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Mongols Trademark Seizure
There have been a lot of posts about the government’s seizure of the MONGOLS trademark, used by a biker gang. You can find blogging about it here, here and here, and commentary here and here on what it means under trademark law principles. Ryan Giles at the Law Vegas Trademark Attorney had the comment that… Continue reading
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Cherry and Jerry Garcia
Awhile back I did a survey on ice cream flavors. One of the flavors in the survey was Cherry Garcia, a Ben & Jerry’s flavor. According to the PTO records, the trademark was originally registered by Ben & Jerry’s but was later assigned to Jerry Garcia’s estate in 1997. The Grateful Dead’s attorney passed away recently and I… Continue reading
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Political Signs
When was the last time that a political campaign had a logo that was famous enough no name was necessary? And have some fun at the same time? © 2008 Pamela Chestek Continue reading
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A Crocodile Has a Skinnier Snout
For a foreign take on the amount of use needed to preserve trademark rights, the IPKat offers a post on use of the word mark CROCODILE by Lacoste in the UK here. © 2008 Pamela Chestek Continue reading
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