• Work Made for Hire Doctrine Trashed by Trailer Trash

    by  • June 29, 2008

    It turns out that the success of Trailer Trash Barbie was indeed the fact that it was a Barbie. After Paul Montwillo (doing business under the name Paul Hansen) and his business partner, William Tull, settled a lawsuit Mattel brought in 1997 against them for their sale of Barbie dolls turned into “Trailer Trash...

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    No Peace in the Inner Peace Movement

    by  • June 29, 2008

    Francisco Coll-Monge (deceased at the time of the suit) founded two non-profit companies in the 1960’s, Inner Peace Movement, Inc. (IPM) and Peace Community Church (PCC), to promote self-actualization programs. He registered various trademarks, including INNER PEACE MOVEMENT and PEACE COMMUNITY CHURCH, in his own name. The district court got it wrong but the...

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    Bratz!

    by  • June 27, 2008

    A blog on IP ownership appropriately starts with Bryant v. Mattel, Case 2:04-cv-09049-SGL-RNB in the Central District of California, otherwise known as Mattel v. MGA Entertainment. This, of course, is the case about Bratz dolls – seems the designer, Carter Bryant, worked at Mattel twice and claims to have designed the dolls between his...

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