In Halicki Films, LLC v. Sanderson Sales & Marketing, plaintiff Denice Shakarian Halicki and various related entities owned some rights – exactly what, to be decided by the court – in Eleanor, billed as “the only Ford Mustang in history to receive STARRING credit in a motion picture.” There are really two Eleanors: a...
Read more →The requirement for a written assignment of copyright can bedevil a copyright claimant, as in Tacori Enterprises v. Rego Manufacturing. In Tacori, the plaintiff was vulnerable because the assignment of copyright was not in a writing, although the original copyright owner and assignee agreed that the copyright had been assigned. Luckily for copyright owners,...
Read more →A couple of ownership cases of interest. First, Oren Tavory failed in his effort to join in the NTP jackpot also known as the RIM settlement – he’s not a co-inventor because he didn’t have evidence that his contribution to the invention was more than simply the exercise of ordinary skill in the art....
Read more →Awhile back I did a survey on ice cream flavors. One of the flavors in the survey was Cherry Garcia, a Ben & Jerry’s flavor. According to the PTO records, the trademark was originally registered by Ben & Jerry’s but was later assigned to Jerry Garcia’s estate in 1997. The Grateful Dead’s attorney passed away recently and...
Read more →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...
Read more →Positive Technologies whiffed the first patent infringement complaint by filing in the name of the wrong entity, Positive-California, when it should have been filed in the name of Positive-Nevada. Positive calls a mulligan and refiles in the correct entity’s name, then the two companies merge into Positive Technologies, Inc. The standing problems aren’t over...
Read more →Family relationships are frequent fodder for a blog about ownership of IP and also my favorite kind of case, because they are such tangled human stories. The contracts are also poor or nonexistent and the IP rights misunderstood if recognized at all, so trying to get to a fair outcome sometimes an interesting exercise....
Read more →There is some consternation in Seattle. The Seattle Supersonics are moving to Oklahoma City. One news report said “the SuperSonics are headed to Oklahoma City with Bennett leading the way, leaving behind the team name, colors and 41 years of history.” More accurately, another report said a binding agreement would “keeps the SuperSonics’ name,...
Read more →The TTABlog reports on a successful trademark opposition because of an invalid assignment of an intent-to-use application. I mentioned yesterday that U.S. trademarks can be assigned without any tangible assets, but the U.S. trademark system has a carve-out for intent-to-use applications – they can’t be assigned without at least part of the ongoing business...
Read more →In the United States, an assignment of a trademark is invalid if the “goodwill” is not also assigned with the mark, but there’s no requirement that any tangible assets be transferred. So what exactly does it mean when agreements recite something like “Assignor does hereby assign to Assignee all rights, title and interest in...
Read more →Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
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