Property, intangible

Trademark ownership isn’t susceptible to an easy rubric. In The American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation v. Lyons, it might have appeared to the registrant, Lyons, that the facts were in her favor based on traditional elements considered when deciding ownership. But, looking at the big picture, the TTAB found otherwise. In 1999… Continue reading

What is the difference between owning an invention and owning a patent? In University of S. Florida v. CoMentis, more money. A former employee of the University of South Florida (USF), Michael Mullan, invented technology related to Alzheimer’s disease. He assigned the patents to the Alzheimer’s Institute of America (AIA), who sued various defendants in… Continue reading

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board is a tribunal of limited jurisdiction. All it has to decide is whether a particular applicant or registrant may own a registration for a particular trademark. In other words, it doesn’t have to decide who wins as between two parties, but rather just has to decide whether one party… Continue reading

Here’s an utterly confusing situation, which I suppose is why there has been an arbitration, two lawsuits, and an appeal to the 9th Circuit with an unpublished decision. People, get the paperwork right. The situation involves Camelot Hair Care Products LLC, a woman named Nina Parkinson, and Robanda International Inc. A person named Tony Parkinson… Continue reading

UPDATE: The parties settled, divvying up the brands. I haven’t written about “zombie” or “heritage” marks in a long time. I last wrote in 2011, about a suit involving department store brands that Macy’s acquired and rebranded, abandoning the original names of Marshall Field’s, I. Magnin, Burdine’s, Kaufmann’s, Lazarus, Meir & Frank, Rich’s and Strawbridge’s.… Continue reading

I previously offered a quiz asking you to decide who, between a secured party and a licensee, owned the rights in an improved version of software. And the answer is — Pro Marketing, owner of the security interest. I missed it, but it is a straightforward answer. The key is that the collateral included rights… Continue reading

Priva Technologies didn’t do well in its business. It financed its business, first, by taking a loan and granting a security interest in assets, including in its software, and second, as part of a reorganization, by assigning the improvements in the software to a licensee. Then it shuttered. Who owns the improvements? The original technology… Continue reading

This is my sixth post (recursive link) about the STOLI case. The defendant, Spirits International B.V., claims to own the STOLI and STOLICHNAYA trademarks as a result of privatization during the collapse of the Soviet Union and is listed as the owner of the trademark registrations. The Russian government, acting through state entity Federal Treasury… Continue reading

It is a simple result, but not one that is forgone. An entity, HELP.org, LLC, owned a domain name, directorschoice.com. A company called Director’s Choice, LLP,* brought a Uniform Domain Name Resolution Policy proceeding against HELP.org for cybersquatting and won. Russ Smith, who owns Help.org, transferred the domain name to his own name and filed… Continue reading

I recently chided a court for not recognizing that one of the parties was claiming ownership of copyright “by operation of law,” specifically “under the operation of California law … governing partnerships, promoters, agents, fiduciaries and cofounders, not as a question of employment, work for hire … or joint work.” The court never reached the… Continue reading