Property, intangible

Predator International, Inc. v. Gamo Outdoor USA, Inc. is a Tenth Circuit decision involving a patent infringement claim. PatentlyO reports on the appellate posture, explaining why the appeal ended up at the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit rather than the Federal Circuit. But I’m more interested in the ownership aspect of it. The… Continue reading

Yoiks. So you license someone your trademark and have this language in the license agreement: [L]icensee hereby acknowledges the validity of the licensed mark and the exclusive ownership of the licensed mark by licensor, whether or not registered or recorded. Licensee agrees that it will not, at any time during the term of the License… Continue reading

I just went on a tirade against the manufacturer-distributor presumption, arguing that the doctrine is meant to apply where “distributor” means “reseller,” not the more complicated case where the so-called “distributor” has some say in how the goods are produced. And here is an example of the relationship the doctrine was meant for—properly applied by… Continue reading

It seems like a simple concept, maybe so simple it isn’t litigated much. You can’t sue the co-owner of your trademark. It’s a band name case (what else?), over “Get the Led Out,” a cover band of Led Zepplin. In 2002 Plaintiff Paul Piccari conceived of the idea to form a band and thought up… Continue reading

John Welch at The TTABlog summarizes a case that is characterized as a manufacturer-distributor dispute over the ownership of the mark “UVF861” for UV light bulbs. John does a thorough job summarizing the case, which I won’t repeat here. In its opinion, the TTAB applied the presumption that in a manufacturer-distributor relationship, the manufacturer owns… Continue reading

Here’s an interesting little patent case involving the ownership of patents under foreign law, in this case German law. The plaintiff’s principal, Werner Schnaebele, worked in Germany for a predecessor of the defendant. He signed one employment agreement that didn’t have any provision for ownership of inventions conceived of by employees, meaning local law would… Continue reading

Oh no, I don’t think so. The Camellia Grill was a New Orleans restaurant that closed in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina. Various aspects of the business were owned by various entities owned by Michael Shwartz; for our purposes we’ll just refer to them all as “Shwartz.” In August, 2007, Shwartz entered into several agreements with… Continue reading

Oh, adidas. adidas AG is a large multinational conglomerate headquartered in Germany. It reported that at the close of 2014 it had 154 subsidiaries, one of which is co-plaintiff adidas America, Inc. A few years ago adidas developed “miCoach,” an “interactive personal coaching and training system.” Parent adidas AG owns the company’s US patents but,… Continue reading

A claim for trademark infringement can be brought under two different sections of the Lanham Act, Section 32 for infringement of registered trademarks and Section 43(a) for infringement of unregistered trademarks.* Registration provides some evidentiary benefits, like prima facie evidence of distinctiveness, so if a plaintiff doesn’t have a registered trademark then it will have… Continue reading

Every patent litigation starts with an examination of the chain of title, or at least it should. Often there are multiple inventors; every link for each one has to be there, and even the language of the employment agreement has to be just right. Even after that, every corporate assignment has to be done properly.… Continue reading