Property, intangible

In Abraxis Bioscience, Inc. v. Navinta, LLC last November, a panel of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit examined a set of transactional documents and held that the plaintiff did not own the patents when the suit was filed and therefore did not have standing (blog post here).  This wasn’t your run-of-the mill… Continue reading

Defendant River West Brands LLC is a company that, in its own words, “identifies, acquires, redevelops, and monetizes iconic brand intellectual property that is significantly distressed.” In other words, its business is in zombie brands. I previously blogged on some of the methods the company uses here.  It’s a business model with fairly significant challenges,… Continue reading

Jason Waggoner developed a software program in the 1990s.  Later, he and two other shareholders created a company called Nearstar, Inc., which distributed “Dataserver” software which was based almost entirely on Waggoner’s software.  Nearstar distributed the software for nine years, including versions 3.2, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0 and 6.2.  Waggoner admitted that he granted Nearstar permission… Continue reading

This case just stinks. I can’t say it’s wrongly decided, it just seems so unfair. The dispute is over ownership of the trademark ZORLAC for skateboards and apparel. Opposer Jeff Newton started a skateboard business in 1976 under the ZORLAC mark, incorporating in 1986. 1984 ad But shortly thereafter he was in financial trouble. He… Continue reading

You be the judge, and it’s not hard on this one.  Dean Bach owned and operated “Dino’s Lounge” in Ferndale, Michigan.  A bar in Northville, Michigan was on the blocks and Bach and a guy named Martinez bid against each other for it.  Martinez’s bid was accepted, but he didn’t have experience running a bar.… Continue reading

Patent standing cases are a dime a dozen, so I don’t necessarily blog them.  But Epic Sporting Goods, Inc. v. Fungoman LLC gives a really good summary of the legal significance of an assignment nunc pro tunc, so I thought I’d share it. On August 1, 2006 the asserted patent (U.S. Patent 7.082,938 titled “Baseball Fielding Practice… Continue reading

You’d think the recent 9th Circuit decision about Betty Boop would be right up my alley.  But really, I’m mostly just mystified by it.  It doesn’t add anything to current copyright jurisprudence and takes a decidedly orthogonal direction on current trademark law. The facts that the Court of Appeals cares to discuss are fairly simple.… Continue reading

Such a short decision, and so many things to think about. We last visited Vergara Hermosilla v. The Coca-Cola Company after a motion for preliminary injunction had been granted in Vergara’s favor. Vergara did a Spanish translation of lyrics for a video for Coca-Cola, but there was a misunderstanding and/or screw up which meant that… Continue reading

URBAN HOMESTEADINGURBAN HOMESTEADINGURBAN HOMESTEADING Check out EFF to see what it’s about. The text of this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Continue reading

Cases have been slow lately, so instead I updated the look of my blog.  Hope you like it. The text of this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Continue reading