band
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Can Only One Member of a Collective Abandon Their Share of a Mark?
There’s something that doesn’t seem right about this case, but then it’s a band case. Those are in their own trademark world. This one is about The Rascals. The original members of The Rascals (originally known as The Young Rascals), formed in 1965, were Felix Cavaliere, Gene Cornish, Eddie Brigati and Dino Danelli: (Dig the… Continue reading
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Mutual Defensive Collateral Estoppel Too
I have written once before about the disputing members of the band RATT. I’ll remind you again about who they are, mostly because this video makes me smile every time I watch it: WBS, Inc. claims to be the successor-in-interest to the trademark RATT, by assignment from the predecessor partnership that consisted of the band… Continue reading
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Be Careful What You Wish For
To “plead yourself out of court” is to state facts in a complaint that mean you have already lost. Something like, in a personal injury case, saying “I rear-ended him because he stopped at a red light” would do it. In Reynolds v. Banks it’s not quite exactly that, but pretty darn close. Sandra Banks… Continue reading
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Round and Round
We have one of my favorite things, a chain of title case, and one about a band name to boot. Usually band name cases are pretty ugly, about a bunch of people getting together without any legal formalities. But this is not that case. We have the 80’s glam band RATT (official website – or… Continue reading
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The Drifters, Yet Again
One thing that’s sure to make my eyes roll back into my head is the word “Drifters” in a case caption. Westlaw has 13 cases listed, 8 federal, 3 state and 2 TTAB. Now the TTAB has had another crack at it, including looking at evidence that goes all the way back to the very… Continue reading
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The Wrist-Rocket Factors
Small businesses or community organizations, like restaurants or well-meaning citizens running a charitable fund-raising event, often don’t have many formalities around their operation, so when there is a dispute over the ownership of the name it’s bound to be very messy. But I don’t think there is any more vexing trademark ownership situation than that… Continue reading
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If There’s No Evidence, How Do You Decide?
I often write about cases where there are two claimants to the same trademark. We’re still struggling with the fundamental doctrine that should apply in the situation, and because we’re struggling it means that the litigants may not capture or offer evidence that the fact finder needs in order to decide. Which is what happened… Continue reading
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Another Band Name Ownership Decision
Ok, I’m very confused by the decision in the TTAB case O.T.H. Enterprises, Inc. v. Vasquez. What’s confusing is that the Board discusses, in two separate parts of the decision, ownership of the mark and priority. I don’t really get that – if the case is about who owns the mark, what other mark is… Continue reading
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How to Steal a Trademark
You don’t see it happen much at all, but a band managed to successfully, including on appeal, claim ownership of the band’s name, despite contractual agreements that conceded the name was owned by the original management company and its successor. We’re talking about an unregistered trademark here, for the band Exposé. (There was an early… Continue reading
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