Update: The Court of Appeals for the First Sixth Circuit affirmed the lower court decision that there was an implied assignment of the trademark. The defendant challenged the decision on two bases. First, without using the word “abandoned,” the defendant argued that the trademark rights were lost when Taylor ceased business. But the owner...
Read more →One of the issues I often write about is what entity, exactly, owns a trademark. As described by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, “feuding members of extended family businesses, aging pop bands, or religious organizations riven by theological schisms” are frequent litigants because trademarks can be adopted with great informality and no documentation....
Read more →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...
Read more →This is a blog about ownership of all types of intellectual property, but it is undoubtedly the ownership of trademarks that provides the most litigation fodder. I think it is because no one thinks of the trademarks, or else they only become important in hindsight. Taylor v. Thomas is a typical example of what...
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