Property, intangible

a blog about ownership of intellectual property rights and its licensing


trademark

  • Thanks to All

    Thanks to everyone who responded on the ice cream survey. I had 207 responses, 200 US and 7 foreign. I’ll be posting the results in the next day or two. © 2008 Pamela Chestek Continue reading

  • “I’ll be a Monkey’s Uncle” Genericism Survey

    I read a case recently that made me wonder whether my personal reaction about the genericism of a phrase was right or wrong, so I decided I’d see what others think. I prepared a Teflon-type survey on SurveyMonkey for you to take; send your friends to take it too. It should take you no more… Continue reading

  • Heavy Hitting in Las Vegas

    The Law Vegas Trademark Attorney gives us background on a newly-filed dispute over the mark HEAVY HITTER(S). It’s an interesting situation – it looks like an advertising agency registered the mark HEAVY HITTER (although the certificate says HEAVY HITTERS) for legal services and relied on licensees’ use to support its registration. Glen Lerner, of Law… Continue reading

  • NY Times on Revival of Brands

    There’s an interesting NYT article that attributes the resurgence of revived brands (blogged here) to tougher economic times – it’s cheaper to revive than build from scratch. © 2008 Pamela Chestek Continue reading

  • The NFL is One Entity – For Trademark Licensing, Anyway

    An appropriate decision for football season; the Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit has affirmed, in an antitrust case, that the exclusive licensing of all professional football teams marks to one vendor is not a violation of the Sherman Act. NFL Properties is an unincorporated organization of 32 separately owned teams. Each team owns… Continue reading

  • Goodwill for Sale

    The area of “residual goodwill” seems to be a hot one lately. I posted recently on River West Brands and Chrysler LLC v. Pimpo, two “residual goodwill” situations, and the TTABlog recently posted on a third one involving the LaSalle trademark for automobiles. “Residual goodwill” describes the significance of a trademark when it is no… Continue reading

  • EasyTrademark Licensing

    The IPKat has brought our attention to a spat between Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of easyJet, and that airline over its use of “easy” for more than just plain Jane “easyJet.” Seems Sir Stelios licenses the easyJet name to the airline through a licensing company called easyGroup IP Licensing, and finds that easyJet’s use of… Continue reading

  • And Not Even a Passing Reference to Whitman’s Chocolates

    Family relationships are frequent fodder for a blog about ownership of IP and also my favorite kind of case, because they are such tangled human stories. The contracts are also poor or nonexistent and the IP rights misunderstood if recognized at all, so trying to get to a fair outcome sometimes an interesting exercise. I… Continue reading

  • Bratz Mandamus Denied

    The 9th Circuit, brief and to the point: Petitioners’ motion to file portions of the emergency motion and the petition for writ of mandamus under seal is granted. The motion to exceed the page limitation on the petition is granted. The emergency motion for an order suspending trial is denied. Petitioners have not demonstrated that… Continue reading

  • Fall River’s Own Lizzie Borden

    A local segment from WBUR’s broadcast of this morning’s NPR show “Morning Edition” was about a dispute in Massachusetts over the rightful owner of Lizzie Borden’s history. The argument is in the form of a trademark lawsuit, where the owner of the “Lizzie Borden Museum” trademark (website here) filed a complaint for trademark infringement in… Continue reading