Property, intangible

Defendant Lingfu Zhang was accused of downloading the movie Fathers & Daughters via BitTorrent. Plaintiff Fathers & Daughters Nevada, LLC was the author and registered copyright owner of the film and sued Zhang. But copyright ownership is tricky. F&D had a sales agency agreement with non-party Goldenrod Holdings and its sub-sales agent Voltage Pictures.1 Goldenrod… Continue reading

One of the most difficult ownership questions is who owns intangible assets created by a person who is the sole shareholder of a legal entity. There isn’t any receipt, or a check written against the corporate account, as evidence of ownership. Trademarks can be the most difficult because people don’t tend to think of them… Continue reading

I previously reported on a case involving a missing patent assignment from an employee. The missing document didn’t prevent the Patent Office from issuing the patent though; the successor to the rights of the other co-inventors submitted the inventor’s employment agreement to the Patent Office and it thereafter issued the patent. However, the district court… Continue reading

I’ve been thinking lately about the concept of a “license.” This is a typical statement of what it is: [A] license is not a contract; rather, a license is “permission to use a copyrighted work in a particular specified manner …” Saxelbye Architects, Inc. v. First Citizens Bank & Tr. Co., 1997 U.S. App. LEXIS… Continue reading

Here is a really interesting decision in a bankruptcy case. If those words make you cringe, stop reading now because we’re going into the weeds. The question is what rights a trademark licensee has when its licensor declares bankruptcy. As a general rule, the trustee can elect to reject an e​xecutory contract under § 365(a). However,… Continue reading

I don’t expect to ever see something that trumps the pawn ticket as a writing documenting a transfer (or attempted transfer) of rights. But, in the copyright realm we have a contender – an Annual Report. It’s embedded below: It says “2003 represents the first 10 months in the life of Storix as a Corporation.… Continue reading

“Rappers are skilled in poetry and rhythm—not necessarily in proper copyright registration procedures.” With that comment, the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reverses a decision from the District Court for the Southern District of Florida that invalidated three copyright registrations for the same work and consequently dismissing the lawsuit. You can read my… Continue reading

I don’t think I have ever been so excited about an exhibit in a case before. It’s one that makes the heart of a person who writes about trademark ownership sing. Just look at it: Yes, it is a pawn ticket. I have looked at many documents claiming to be a trademark assignment and this… Continue reading

Plaintiff Janssen Biotech had a fundamental structural problem with an agreement. The document was called an “Employee Secrecy Agreement,” but in addition to imposing duties of confidentiality on its employees the agreement also served as an employee invention assignment agreement, as is commonly, if not universally, done. Janssen’s structural problem was in the definition of… Continue reading

If you are registering for or filing something in your client’s name, never take their word on the details of the legal entity. First off, many times your client won’t know the state of incorporation, thinking it’s the state in which they are doing business rather than Delware, or vice versa. Or, as was the… Continue reading