assignment
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Whoa, Harsh
Not necessarily wrong, but harsh. The outcome is clearly contrary to the contracting parties’ intent, and a third party, an accused infringer, reaps the benefits. Non-party Roman Martinez, Sr. was the author of two songs, Buscando Un Cariño and Morenita de Ojos Negros. On June 5, 1981, he and his band El Grupo Internacional de… Continue reading
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“Abandoned” Means It’s Not Yours Anymore
What a mess. Add up ugly facts and a court that bought a frivolous and completely wrong argument (made without citation – because there aren’t any) and you end up with a fiasco. Here’s to appeals. Non-party Herb Burkhalter had a yellow pages directory business he sold to co-defendants Steven M. Brandeberry and American Telephone… Continue reading
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How to Do a Copyright Assignment So You Can Sue
I’ve written before about a bunch of copyright infringement lawsuits brought by numerous photo agencies claiming that book publishers exceeded the scope of licenses granted, either by publishing in unlicensed territories or printing more copies than permitted by the license. The photo agency business model presents litigation challenges, though: only the legal or beneficial owner… Continue reading
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Pay Attention to This One
Ok, here’s one every in-house patent attorney should pay attention to. It’s a case from North Carolina state court, but has much wider-reaching ramifications. Maybe it’s a fact pattern that doesn’t arise too often, but the result is pretty eye-opening. Plaintiff Robert Morris was the first employee at the defendant company Scenera Research, LLC. There… Continue reading
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Too Many Transactions
Six inventors, four changes in ownership before the patent issued and four more after. That’s a recipe for a standing problem. In Mayfair Wireless LLC v. Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless, Mayfair Wireless did a lot of due diligence and even some extra clean-up — it had the six original inventors assign any rights to… Continue reading
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Which Distributor Owns the Mark?
Hold on, we’ve got a complicated one here. Save it for your “very long reading” queue. One trademark, three potential owners in the distribution chain with overlapping periods of time during which they claim ownership. The mark: “Smart Candle” (Smart Candles, SMARTCANDLE, SmartCandles, etc.) for electronic candles. The companies: Smartcandle.co.uk Limited (“SCK”) — non-party UK… Continue reading
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Attorney-Client Privilege and Patent Assignment
Here’s an interesting tidbit to keep in mind—the assignee of a patent may be able to claim that a legal opinion given to the original owner of a patent is privileged despite the assignment of the patent. The case is SimpleAir, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., and the challenger to the claim of privilege is Google.… Continue reading
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It’s Quiz Time!
This is a copyright case. Here is the sequence of events according to the plaintiffs’ timeline: 1995: Image created by artist Beasley 1997: Image used by defendant with permission 2003: Image used by defendant without permission 2009: Image used by defendant without permission 2009: Assignment of the copyright in the image from Beaseley to his… Continue reading
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Sometimes You’re Just Stuck With Bad Facts
Sometimes you just have to remind yourself that the facts are the facts, and no amount of sharp lawyering is going to change them. That was the situation for defendant ABN AMRO Bank N.V. (“ABN”). It had hastily negotiated a sale of certain assets to Bank of America (“BAC”) in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid… Continue reading
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