assignment
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The Contract Without End – What the Parties Did
I previously described a situation where unhappy licensees refused to acknowledge that there was a new licensor. Bruce Kirby, Inc. was the original licensor of the defendants’ rights to build Kirby Sailboats granted in the “Builder Agreements” and then in 2008 Bruce Kirby sold his business to Global Sailing Limited (GSL). The Builder Agreements didn’t… Continue reading
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The Contract Without End
This case relates to some kind of intellectual property, denominated in the agreement as “copyright” and “industrial design” rights, although the true nature of the rights was not examined by the court. It’s a mess of a problem, with a “solution” that turned out not to work quite as the parties planned. I’ll set out… Continue reading
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When Your Tax Strategy Is Inimical to Your Patent Strategy
Don’t let the tax department screw up your patent infringement case. Or, when they do, I hope they saved more on taxes than you lost on the patent case.1 W.L. Gore & Assocs., Inc. v. C.R. Bard, Inc. is an example of what can happen. In 1983, Gore set up a patent holding company, Gore… Continue reading
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The 2d Circuit Is Part Way There on Eden Toys
I have long complained about a defense that comes up in copyright cases, originating with the Second Circuit’s Eden Toys, Inc. v. Florelee Undergarment Co. Eden Toys involved a challenge to standing based on the timing of of an exclusive license. The case has heavily-quoted language about the challenge: In this case, in which the… Continue reading
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Dodged a Bullet
Awhile back I titled a blog “Pay Attention to This One.” People did. You can read in more detail about the facts in the appeals court opinion blogged here, but the crux is that an inventor had an oral agreement with his employer that he would be paid a bonus for his inventions in exchange… Continue reading
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Why You Have That Employment Agreement Gobbledygook
Plaintiff Advanced Video Technologies has been around the block a few times already. AVT claimed to be the successor to a patent for a video codec. It had successfully asserted the patent against other defendants but ran into some problems when trying to sue HTC Corp., Blackberry and Motorola Mobility. Its first attempt failed because… Continue reading
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Pick Your Story
When you have one theory for one court, and a different theory for a later one, it probably isn’t going to turn out too well. In the latter suit before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, Weber-Stephen Products, LLC, famous maker of grills, petitioned to cancel the registration for a stylized “Q” trademark owned by… Continue reading
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Three Registrations, One Work: The Answer
I previously posted about a copyright infringement suit with three registrations for the same work, brought by William L. Roberts aka Rick Ross, and Andrew Harr and Jermaine Jackson aka The Runners, alleging infringement of a musical work titled “Hustlin’.” I asked what happens on a motion for summary judgment on the questions “was the… Continue reading
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Three Registrations, One Work: A Quiz
(Explicit lyrics) We have a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by William L. Roberts, aka Rick Ross, and Andrew Harr and Jermaine Jackson, aka The Runners, alleging infringement of a musical work titled “Hustlin’.” In 2001, Roberts signed a recording agreement with Slip ‘N Slide Records (SNS), a name used interchangeably in agreements with First-N-Gold Publishing,… Continue reading
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I Called It (Sort of)
I previously wrote about a case, Uptown Grill, L.L.C. v. Shwartz, with some boobery in the sale of a single-locale restaurant. There were two relevant documents, a Bill of Sale and a trademark license agreement, entered into 16 days apart. The Bill of Sale was between seller Shwartz and Uptown Grill LLC in exchange for… Continue reading
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