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A Garden is Not Copyrightable
The Clannco Art+Law blog gives us a thorough summary of a Visual Artists Rights Act case out of the 7th Circuit. The court, clearly troubled by the fact that most everyone would consider the work in question a “garden,” held that the work was neither “authored” nor “fixed” in the senses required for copyright.… Continue reading
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Assignment of a Patent’s Priority Right
The IPKat explains it. Aye-yigh-yigh. You figure it out. The text of this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Continue reading
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Beware the “Own Name” Defense
Lawsuits in the United States over use of personal names come up occasionally. They happen when someone doing business under his or her own name sells off the rights, then try to compete in the original field using some form of the name (I think this is called “having one’s cake and eating it too”).… Continue reading
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Grateful for Your Help!
If you’re a procrastinator like me, you’ve been planning on sending me an affidavit about the distinctiveness of the trademark for my blog. Now’s the time though! Original post here. Thanks for all those who have sent me something so far, and for those of you who plan to but haven’t gotten around to it… Continue reading
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Is the Claim Time-Barred?
So here are the facts: Business Resources Bureau, Inc. (BRB) was the publisher. Alan M. Schlein was the author. BRB hired Shirley Kwan, at Schlein’s request, to do 100 hours of editing. BRB told Kwan that she would “be given a credit or byline on the title page as editor on the project.” After the… Continue reading
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Don’t Forget Trade Dress In Your Manufacturing Agreements
Tecnimed SRL v Kidz-Med, Inc. is a manufacturer-distributor dispute with a bit of a twist – the agreement was clear about who owned the trademark (the manufacturer), but it didn’t address who owned the trade dress for the product. Tecnimed is an Italian company that makes a non-contact thermometer for taking a child’s temperature. Kidz-Med was… Continue reading
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Confirmed – X/Open Owns the UNIX Trademark
I previously blogged about a case where there was a challenge to the ownership of the UNIX trademark. The decision has now been affirmed in an unpublished decision by the 11th Circuit. The UNIX mark was owned by Novell, but Novell decided to first license, then assign the mark to X/Open, a technology consortium. Novell had used… Continue reading
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Who’s the Baddest Chicks?
(click to enlarge) You’re an administrative judge with the TTAB. The entity with the logo second from the left on the bottom of the poster owns a registration for “ATL’s Baddest Chicks.” The entity with the logo on the left, the domain name “www.littelconcepts.net” and the phone number 404-607-8772 claims to be the owner of… Continue reading
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Too Many Cupcakeries
Ryan Gile at the Las Vegas Trademark Attorney does a fabulous job summarizing a new suit over ownership of THE CUPCAKERY trademark – it’s my favorite kind, a family feud. Is the REAL Cupcakery here – or here?? The text of this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States… Continue reading
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Your Help Needed!
So, I filed an application to register the name of my blog. I was refused registration, twice, under Section 2(e) on the basis that the name of the blog is merely descriptive. I heartily disagree, but there I am, with a final refusal. So I’m taking a page from John Welch’s playbook (although without any floating key chain to… Continue reading