Can two restaurants use the same mark and confuse consumers when one is the unambiguous owner and the other not a licensee? Yes, when a bankruptcy court makes it so. The Siano family first opened “Vincent’s Clam Bar” in 1904 at 119 Mott Street in Little Italy, New York (the “Mott Street restaurant”). They...
Read more →Here’s an exercise in frustration that killed a copyright infringement lawsuit twice: 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998 – Plaintiff Kunkel creates copyrightable works. November 2001 – Kunkel files bankruptcy. Does not list copyrights as part of estate.February, 2003 – Kunkel files copyright applications for works created pre-bankruptcy in his own name.March, 2006 –...
Read more →Bankruptcy. Not sure it would have made a difference in the outcome here, but it might have helped. Ham’s Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chelda, Inc., operated restaurants under the “Ham’s” brand: Ham’s Inc. filed for bankruptcy and RCR Marketing, LLC bought all of Ham’s “right, title and interest in the assets, property and...
Read more →Pacific Coast Trailers, LLC v. Cozad Trailer Sales, LLC is a tale of failed due diligence. Reliance Trailer Manufacturing Corp. (“Reliance Mfg.”) owned the trademarks RELIANCE, STURDYWELD, ALLOY and COMET. It assigned the latter three, but not RELIANCE, to a sibling company, Reliance Trailer Co., LLC (“Reliance LLC”). Reliance LLC defaulted on some loans...
Read more →Wow. Ryan Gile at the Las Vegas Trademark Attorney has written a 3,700 word tome, with diagrams, on the convoluted and complicated (an understatement) ownership interest in the trademark “Tropicana” for hotels. I can’t begin to imagine how long it took to write it, much less understand all the transactions before being able to...
Read more →Some cases make you wonder and UFA Holdings, Inc. v. Performance Acquisition Group Company is one of them. It’s newly filed in Oregon, as reported by local news channel KTMR.com. The first “G.I. Joe’s” store opened in 1947 and ultimately grew to a chain of 27 stores. As told in the plaintiff’s memorandum in...
Read more →In suit is what’s styled as a license to use the mark BUTTERNUT for bread in parts of Illinois. Interstate Bakeries (IBC) is the record owner of the BUTTERNUT mark and Plaintiffs Lewis Brothers Bakeries Inc. and Chicago Baking Company (LBB/CBC) use the BUTTERNUT mark. Interstate is currently in bankruptcy, which means it can...
Read more →When the dispute over the ownership of the name of the famous restaurant “Tavern on the Green” started, I posted a poll asking whether the restaurant or New York City owned the name. The results are in, with responses overwhelmingly in favor of the restaurant, 93% to 6% (okay, well there were only 15...
Read more →The New York Times is reporting that New York City has reversed its original opinion about whether it or the soon-to-be-ousted lessee of the building owns the trademark “Tavern on the Green.” According to the article (registration required), when the City originally put the lease out for bids it said that it could not...
Read more →Ryan Gile, the Las Vegas Trademark Attorney, reports on an interesting and complicated new lawsuit revolving around the ownership of the mark TROPICANA – for casinos and hotels, not orange juice. “The Tropicana’s famous roadside sign, a Las Vegas landmark dominating the Strip and welcoming arriving guests for a half-century.” (from the complaint). The...
Read more →Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
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