Property, intangible

a blog about ownership of intellectual property rights and its licensing

  • Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later

    Tacori Enterprises v. Rego Manufacturing is such a meaty case that I’ll do separate posts on the various trademark and copyright issues in the case. This post is a lesson on how not to assign ownership of a copyright and register it – the plaintiff spent tens of thousands of dollars defending attacks on the… Continue reading

  • Political Signs

    When was the last time that a political campaign had a logo that was famous enough no name was necessary? And have some fun at the same time? © 2008 Pamela Chestek Continue reading

  • A Crocodile Has a Skinnier Snout

    For a foreign take on the amount of use needed to preserve trademark rights,  the IPKat offers a post on use of the word mark CROCODILE by Lacoste in the UK here. © 2008 Pamela Chestek Continue reading

  • No Payments Should Have Been a Tip Off –

    A quick lesson in bringing a claim for copyright ownership – there’s a three year statute of limitations from when you knew or had reason to know about the disputed ownership, and a registration that covers your work but doesn’t name you as an author, a copyright notice not listing you, and no royalty income,… Continue reading

  • ConsumerInfo Owns the Mark

    Consumerinfo.com, Inc. v. Money Management Intl, Inc. is a short opinion with two of the rarer trademark ownership issues – whether the registrant is the true owner of the mark, and the quantum of use necessary to establish a date of first use of a mark. Unfortunately, the decision doesn’t contribute a lot to the… Continue reading

  • Love Letters

    Martin Luther King’s heirs are arguing over the ownership of the love letters Dr. King wrote to his wife Coretta.  The King couple’s daughter, Bernice, is refusing to turn them over to her brother, Dexter, for use in a book to be published by Penguin Group.  Penguin has threatened to pull out of the book… Continue reading

  • Patsy’s Restaurant Wars

    The never-ending saga of competing “Patsy’s” restaurants in New York simmers on. I count 13 decisions in the Westlaw database from at least three separate suits, plus there have been four petitions to cancel filed at the PTO. The latest decision, resolving all outstanding issues between the parties at the trial court level, starts this… Continue reading

  • “Lebanon Claiming Only It Owns Hummus, Falafel, Tabouleh And Baba Gannouj”

    Here.  Nothing I could add. HT to Gap. Continue reading

  • “Museum Agrees to Ax Lizzie Borden Name”

    Not my headline, this newspaper’s.  Defendant True Story of Lizzie Borden Gift Shop and Museum, sued over the use of “Lizzie Borden” by plaintiff Lizzie Borden Bed and Breadkfast (case previously blogged here), will change its name.  The museum can mention Lizzie Borden in a tagline and can phase out sales of promotional goods.  More news reporting here. The… Continue reading

  • Patent Ownership and Joint Development Agreements

    It was big news when Lucent Technologies won a $1.5 billion patent infringement suit against Gateway, Dell and Microsoft.  Less memorable was when the jury award was tossed on a motion for judgment as a matter of law (Lucent Technologies Inc. v. Gateway, Inc., 509 F.Supp.2d 912 (S.D.Cal. 2007)).  Now, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed the JMOL.… Continue reading