Property, intangible

I’ve previously reported on a case brought by Wayne Gray challenging the ownership of the UNIX trademark.  Gray was trying to register the mark “iNUX” but his application was refused as likely to be confused with UNIX. He went on the attack in court, claiming that an assignment from Novell to defendant X/Open wasn’t effective. He lost… Continue reading

Photo by davesandford, CC BY-NC 2.0 In U.S. Auto Parts Network, Inc. v. Parts Geek, LLC out of the Ninth Circuit, the court says that its decision is about a “previously unexplored intersection of the Copyright Act’s work for hire and derivative work provisions.” Perhaps so, although the analysis is fairly routine. Defendant Lucas Thomason… Continue reading

The saga over the use of Walter Mercado’s name and likeness, trademark, and copyrighted content goes on and on and on … Suits in two different jurisdictions, Florida and Puerto Rico, and one appeal so far. What’s interesting to me about the case is that Walter Mercado unequivocally assigned the WALTER MERCADO trademark to opposing… Continue reading

I previously reported on a bankruptcy involving the BUTTERNUT trademark for breads.  In 1996, in order to avoid antitrust concerns created by its acquisition of another bread company, Interstate Bakeries Corporation (IBC) sold assets and granted a trademark license for its BUTTERNUT and SUNBEAM marks to Lewis Brothers Bakeries (LBB). The trademark license was only… Continue reading

Photo from Grand Rapid Press Here’s one to wrap your head around, courtesy of the IPKat. Cedar Springs, Michigan has heretofore been the “Red Flannel Town,” as evidenced by the sign to the left. The logo was used by the town on city vehicles, the cemetery, its letterhead, and in its town seal. The story*… Continue reading

Work made for hire cases come up pretty often, but when they do the question usually is whether the person was an employee. This is the question that the factors in Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid are used to answer. But for a work to be a work made for hire, the work must… Continue reading

I reported in the past about a dispute over the WITTMANN PATCH mark for a surgical device invented by Mark Wittmann. The case arose out of a business relationship that went bad. The court held on a preliminary injunction that plaintiff Starsurgical owned the WITTMANN PATCH mark and that Wittmann had to cease using it.… Continue reading

Florida VirtualSchool is an agency of the State of Florida. The enabling statute for the school says this: The board of trustees … may acquire, enjoy, use and dispose of patents, copyrights, and trademarks and any licenses and other rights or interests thereunder or therein. Ownership of all such patents, copyrights, trademarks, licenses, and rights… Continue reading

Bankruptcy law has a quirky little thing going on with trademarks. But let’s back up a little and put some context to it. Under Bankruptcy Code § 365(a), the trustee for a company in bankruptcy has the option of rejecting or assuming executory contracts or unexpired leases. This is a fundamental need for a company… Continue reading

No one else seems to have reported much on this case, which is understandable – there’s not really any new ground covered.  But it is a Federal Circuit decision, so I’ll give you a brief summary. Yale Preston was an employee of Marathon Oil Co. A few days after his employment began, at the same… Continue reading