Property, intangible

Sometimes things in your life intersect. I recently had the pleasure of attending “The TTAB Comes to Boston,” a day when the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board heads to Boston for the day. It was a fabulous event, a great case and a great panel. And then the first case that landed on my desktop… Continue reading

Photo by Kevin Burkett. Licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0 Frank Gaylord was the artist who created the figures that are part of the Korean War Veterans Memorial. A photograph of the figures in the snow was used on a postage stamp.  In 2006 Frank Gaylord sued in the Court of Claims, lost, appealed, and then won… Continue reading

The caption tells it all: 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, Inc. v. 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care. As explained by the TTAB: Opposers’ pleadings herein contain three grounds for refusing applicant registration: (1) priority and likelihood of confusion; (2) likelihood of dilution; and (3) that applicant is not the rightful owner… Continue reading

There’s an interesting, albeit quixotic, complaint against the Yankees over the ownership of its “top hat” logo: Plaintiff Tanit Buday claims that her uncle, Kenneth Timur, designed the logo for the Yankees in 1936 but was not compensated for the design.  In 1947 he modified the logo design in preparation for the 50-year anniversary of… Continue reading

Image from Counterfeit Chic “Staggering blow.”“Major reversal.”“Plastic cat fight of epic proportions.” “Astonishing loss.”  It just doesn’t get more dramatic than this.  In the everlasting dispute over ownership of the Bratz doll franchise, Mattel’s original $100 million verdict in the first trial is gone. Now Mattel gets a paltry $10,000 on an intentional interference claim… Continue reading

Gosh, such a juicy fact pattern; I read it with baited breath waiting to find out who owns the trademark. You can’t help but love a story that has stuff like this in it: “You have just 48 [hours] to decide…. After this deadline, Chen, Shenda, and I will have only one goal in our… Continue reading

Sometimes decisions seem expedient instead of right, albeit perhaps no harm, no foul. VocalSpace, LLC v. Lorenso is one of those decisions. Defendant Daniel Lorenso is a software developer and former employee of plaintiff VocalSpace, a company that designs web-based internet marketing and streaming media systems. VocalSpace claimed that Lorenso “stole” VocalSpace’s source code and… Continue reading

Here’s an exercise in frustration that killed a copyright infringement lawsuit twice: 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998 – Plaintiff Kunkel creates copyrightable works. November 2001 – Kunkel files bankruptcy.  Does not list copyrights as part of estate.February, 2003 – Kunkel files copyright applications for works created pre-bankruptcy in his own name.March, 2006 – Bankruptcy… Continue reading

Boathouse Group, Inc. v. TigerLogic Corp. is a priority dispute between two trademarks for software used to enhance the functionality of social media sites. The plaintiff’s mark was POSTPOST, located at postpo.st, and the defendant’s was POSTPOST, located at postpost.com.  Given the identicality of the marks, the only question was whether the services were similar… Continue reading

John Welch has done his usual stellar job of convincing the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to come to Boston to conduct a hearing.  Sponsored by the Trademark Committee of the Boston Patent Law Association, the Board will sit at the Northeastern University School of Law on April 29th in the afternoon.  The case is… Continue reading