Property, intangible

a blog about ownership of intellectual property rights and its licensing

  • Rhymes with Orange

    Some of you may recall I did some posts about “Moose Tracks” ice cream, a registered trademark but a generic flavor name in my book.  So I couldn’t resist posting today’s comic from one of my favorite cartoonists, Hilary Price and Rhymes with Orange: The text of this work is licensed under a Creative Commons… Continue reading

  • Fraud is Really Hard to Prove

    The TTABlog reports on a case involving a fairly common type of dispute, between a manufacturer and importer, albeit with a twist.  I’ll elaborate a little more on the claim that relates to the ownership of the mark. The importer was the registrant of the mark ZYTNIA for vodka; the Polish manufacturer filed a petition… Continue reading

  • Who Owns Facebook?

    It’s old news now that a gentleman named Paul Ceglia claims to own 84% of Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook web site.  Ceglia coughed up a contract that purports to pay Zuckerberg $1000 to write code for a project Ceglia called StreetFax and also to pay Zuckerberg $1000 towards the development of “The Face Book” in exchange… Continue reading

  • Divorce Entitled to Full Faith and Credit

    Co-inventor Mundi Fumokong was married to Fonda Whitfield when he filed for two related patent applications.  In California, all property acquired by a married person during marriage is presumed to be community property, including patent applications.  Fumokong and Whitfield later filed for a  “quickie” divorce (those are the court’s words), more formally called a summary… Continue reading

  • Tedious Termination Rights

    I’ve carefully avoided blogging about copyright termination rights, but only because the cases are so mind-numbing.  Luckily, though, Tamera Bennett at the Create Protect Blog isn’t afraid to take the subject on.  She’s summarized the 2009 and 2010 Cases of Interest. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States… Continue reading

  • Screwed, But Not a Federal Problem

    There’s a tale here.  Unfortunately for plaintiff, not enough to make a federal case. The plaintiff, G & F Licensing Corporation (GFLC), claims to be a successor company to the Gordon & Ferguson Company, the original owner of the mark FIELD & STREAM for apparel.  The current record owner is Field & Stream Licenses Co.,… Continue reading

  • Is It “Spare Time” if Your Employer Owns Your Work?

    Microsoft is getting some press for announcing that it is giving its 93,000 employees Windows 7 phones.  An email announcing the plan to the employees was posted on TechFlash: I am thrilled to announce that a new Windows Phone 7 will be made available to every Microsoft employee as we launch in each market around… Continue reading

  • “Who Owns Bratz?”

    Be still my heart, my title is the opening line in the 9th Circuit decision about the long-standing dispute over the Bratz dolls, a title I have somehow thus far missed using.  More background than you could ever want on the case is here. As we all know, MGA Entertainment lost in a big way. … Continue reading

  • It’s the Little Things

    There’s a pretty interesting older decision about ownership of the “MG” (as in cars) trademark that serves up some good drafting lessons. The story starts with the failure of the MG Rover Group, owner of the “MG” mark. The Nanjing Automobile (Group) Corporation (“NAC China”) bought the MG brand, but a man named William Riley… Continue reading

  • Not Much Hope Left

    Fifty Six Hope Road Music Limited, Inc. is the legal entity that owns the rights to reggae singer Bob Marley’s name, likeness and trademarks.  It’s pretty familiar with defending those rights and pretty successful at it. Massachusetts case Jürek Zamoyski v. Fifty-Six Hope Road Music Limited, Inc. gives us some insight into what steps Fifty-Six… Continue reading