Property, intangible

I’ve written in the past about a dispute over ownership of the Winnie the Pooh intellectual property rights. The original state court case was a claim by Stephen Slesinger Inc. (SSI), the successor to the rights from A.A. Milne, that Disney had underpaid royalties. A subsequent infringement case was brought in federal court, and Disney… Continue reading

There is a pair of interesting decisions out of the District of Massachusetts about ownership of the marks “Collaborative Problem Solving,” “Collaborative Problem Solving Approach” (the “CPS Marks”), “Think:Kids” and “Think:Kids: Rethinking Challenging Kids” (the “Think:Kids” Marks). “Interesting” because it is a case where marks that preexisted a business relationship were lost by signing an… Continue reading

From Tattoo Art Inc. website There is an unpublished decision out of the 4th Circuit that doesn’t cover any new ground legally but is timely, given the recent brouhaha over copyright in tattoos. Unremarkably, because I’m not sure how anyone could think differently, there is no discussion on the copyrightability of tattoos; that is assumed.… Continue reading

There’s a fascinating bit of cold war history in the Copyright Act – who knew? The story is told in Hendricks & Lewis, PLLC v. George Clinton. George Clinton, of Parliament and Funkadelic fame, owes the law firm Hendricks & Lewis a lot of money. The firm obtained two judgments against Clinton and sought appointment… Continue reading

Haggar International Corp. v. United Company for Food Industry Corp. is a fairly classic manufacturer-distributor dispute. The conflict started over twenty years ago and the suit has been pending for nine years, which explains why the parties have widely differing recollection of relevant events. Hat’s off to the court for sorting out the mess. The… Continue reading

IP Finance has an important post for those who do international transactional work. It seems that under UK law, an unregistered trademark, unlike a registered trademark, may NOT be assigned without the the business to which it is attached. In Iliffe News and Media Ltd & Ors v Revenue & Customs [2012] UKFTT 696 (TC)… Continue reading

A quick primer, courtesy of the Northern District of Illinois, on ownership and infringement of foreign copyrighted works. In Games Workshop Ltd. v. Chapterhouse Studios, LLC, the disputed works were miniature figurines to be used for a tabletop war game about a dystopian science-fantasy world called Warhammer 40,000. The owner of the Warhammer 40,000 universe… Continue reading

A co-owner of a copyrighted work sues for infringement of the work. The court holds that the defendant had been granted a license by another co-owner, not a party, and therefore there was no infringement. The non-party co-owner then sues for copyright infringement in a new suit. Collateral estoppel or not? “Not,” according to the… Continue reading

I just blogged about a case where an email was inadequate to transfer ownership of copyright. It wasn’t because it was email, though; an email exchange can do the trick, as was the case in Vergara Hermosilla v. The Coca-Cola Company (blogged here). There is a federal statute that allows for electronic signature of documents,… Continue reading

Defendant Mark Frost wrote a book called “The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever.” Plaintiff MVP Entertainment wanted to make a movie out of it. The parties’ attorneys corresponded about an assignment of the copyright, culminating with this exchange: Attorney for MVP: “Let me know if this is okay and we’ll send… Continue reading