Property, intangible

The patent, trademark and copyright statutes each provide that an assignment must be in writing. One time I asked a listserv whether that means you have to have the writing in hand. Silly me, it is an evidence question. Defendant Denis Bouboulis was an inventor of an allergy treatment device. He became a shareholder, and… Continue reading

A poll. We have a trademark for a recurring sports event and two parties who each claim to own it. Here are the facts as we know them. They aren’t hypothetical; they are taken from a case and it’s all we have to go on. Work with what you’ve got. Plaintiff’s version Defendant’s version Revenue… Continue reading

By now you should have read John Welch‘s excellent report on the Federal Circuit opinion in Lyons v. The American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation; you can also find more background from me on the Board decision here. Despite my fondness for ownership cases, I wish this wasn’t one, or at least I… Continue reading

GC2 Inc. v. Int’l Game Tech, PLC is a fairly unexciting copyright ownership case. The main argument involves construction of an ambiguous contract. (What other kinds are there?) GC2 provided “video graphics and artwork” for IGT’s gaming machines and conversion kits. The agreement had a license grant and it defined certain devices and fields that… Continue reading

I’ve written before about the trademark dispute over the Camellia Grill restaurant in New Orleans. The restaurant closed after Hurricane Katrina, after which the original owner, Shwartz, disposed of the business in various transactions with Khodr.1 The ultimate ownership of the CAMILLIA GRILL trademark is what I’ve been writing about. To briefly summarize the several… Continue reading

There’s nothing like a good procedural end run. Some people think it’s not sporting, but they are often very efficient. In re Hansen is a bankruptcy case with a history. Karl Hansen owned some US and foreign patents that he licensed to PixArt Imaging Inc. in 2008. Karl and Lisa Hansen filed for Chapter 7… Continue reading

Super Sabre Society v. Frazier is an opposition to the registration of a logo, filed in both black and white and color, for association services: Applicant Frazier had been a founder, the first CEO and a board member of the Super Sabre Society, an organization for those who flew the F-100 Super Sabre. No one… Continue reading

The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, took an opportunity to clarify the doctrine to be used when deciding, as between a manufacturer and distributor, who owns the trademark. The decision is a wee bit puzzling only because it makes much of what didn’t look like much at the trial court level. The court… Continue reading

I have written extensively in the past about what I consider a misapplication of the anti-trafficking provision of Section 10 of the Lanham Act. Section 10 has a special provision that limits when one can assign an intent-to-use trademark application. After the 1989 amendment to the Lanham Act, companies could file trademark applications before actually… Continue reading

I previously reported on a case that managed to find a non-statutory basis for cancelling an “incontestable” trademark registration, specifically that the application for the registration was void ab initio. The plaintiff and trademark owner was NetJets, with a registered trademark for a software program INTELLIJET. The defendant was a company named Intellijet Group. Both… Continue reading