trademark
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What Is the Mark Being Used?
What Is the Mark Being Used? Two entities are disputing the ownership of the domain name “coralgardens.com.” The domain name is owned by Reef Residences Management Ltd., a company that manages short term rentals for the Coral Gardens condominium resort in the Turks and Caicos Islands, British West Indies. The Proprietors, Strata Plan No. 36,… Continue reading
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Real Party in Interest
There is an ongoing dispute between the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, more commonly known as “The Grange,” and a former chapter in California. National Grange established the California State Grange in 1873 and it registered as a California corporation in 1946. In 2012, there was a dispute between the California… Continue reading
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Saved by the Paris Convention
Here’s a drafting lesson: if you’re granting rights to a trademark, you should have the trademark rights. That sounds like an obvious lesson, but I’ll bet it happens all the time, in the same way it happened to defendant Worldwide Entertainment Group. I’ll bet a lot of you have done it. The plaintiff Adria MM… Continue reading
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It’s About the Evidence
Whole Foods Market filed an application to register the mark IDEAL MARKET for grocery stores, giving a first use date in 1940. Opposers Muwafak Kaki and Kaki Inc. opposed on the basis that they were joint owners of an IDEAL MARKET trademark that predated Whole Foods’ first use. Whole Foods filed a motion for summary… Continue reading
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When Is It a License?
When reviewing a settlement agreement, I often ponder the parts where it says something like “Party B agrees not to infringe the trademark in the future.” The agreement doesn’t need it; whether you say it or not Party B isn’t allowed to break the law. I suppose adding the language gives you a breach of… Continue reading
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It’s All About the Evidence
One of the interesting things about TTAB proceedings is that there is no live testimony before the people who will decide the case, the judges. That’s generally a good thing; it means the proceeding is less expensive and time-consuming. Trial testimony is done like a deposition, with just the parties and a court reporter, and… Continue reading
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Get the Agreement Signed
This is a remarkable story. It’s a counter-intuitive result, not wrong, but so surprising. I present: THE VILLAGE PEOPLE!! (Go ahead, full screen. You know you want to.) There is no dispute that the plaintiff in this case, Can’t Stop Productions, Inc., created the Village People. The front man in the video, the police officer,… Continue reading
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“Not So Fast” Coda
I generally write about intangible property, but I hope you’ll forgive me if I write about one piece of tangible property. Many years ago I wrote about a lawsuit over ownership of the intellectual property rights in the car “Eleanor” from the movie “Gone in 60 Seconds” and in “Remake Eleanor” from the 2000 movie… Continue reading
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Mutual Defensive Collateral Estoppel Too
I have written once before about the disputing members of the band RATT. I’ll remind you again about who they are, mostly because this video makes me smile every time I watch it: WBS, Inc. claims to be the successor-in-interest to the trademark RATT, by assignment from the predecessor partnership that consisted of the band… Continue reading
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Shocking Result – You Can’t Cancel a Registration the Other Party Doesn’t Own
“The issue before the Court is whether an entity other than the trademark registrant and owner may properly be sued for trademark cancellation.” And my head explodes. One owns a property, a trademark registration. A claim that the property right doesn’t exist can only be brought against the entity that claims to own the property… Continue reading
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