Plaintiff Chris Sevier, owner of Severe Records, LLC, collaborated with artist Shanna Crooks on two songs,“Better” and “Watching Me Leave,” the extent of the collaboration on the songs and the sound recordings TBD. Both of them distributed the sound recordings. Next was the expected falling out, and Shanna Crooks’ new management company accused Sevier...
Read more →Neil Wilkof writing for the IPKat recently posted about joint ownership of a trademark, in particular what termination options might be available when the relationship falls apart. He’s done a great job wrestling down the pros and cons of the various ways one can deal with the disposal of the trademark once a joint...
Read more →Once I did some legal research on unincorporated associations. How do you know when you have one? Is your regular Friday night poker game an unincorporated association? (My aunt played poker with the same people for 50 years – surely that was an unincorporated association.) What about when members change, what happens then? When...
Read more →Artist Frank Gaylord created the bronze figures that are part of the Korean War Veterans Memorial. He sued the U.S. Postal Service when a photo of the sculptures was used on a stamp. In take one, the Court of Claims split the baby, deciding that the photo was a fair use of the sculpture, but...
Read more →Third Education Group, Inc. v. Phelps is a short, clean, decision on trademark ownership. Richard Phelps wanted to create a web-based journal and asked Thompson to join him in the endeavor. Phelps thought of the name “Third Education Group” and registered the trademark in his own name. The parties had a falling out and...
Read more →Agreements that assign employees’ inventions to the employer are commonplace. O’Keefe v. County of St. Clair demonstrates why. Plaintiff John O’Keefe was an at-will Landfill/Resource Recovery Manager for the county landfill. Co-defendant CTI and Associates was a contractor at the landfill, working with O’Keefe on operations and landfill design. O’Keefe and the president of...
Read more →There are few disputes more difficult to solve than deciding who owns a trademark after co-owners have a falling out. Family businesses seem particularly susceptible, my guess would be because they are started more casually without formal documents that even contemplate trademark ownership. European trademark blog Class 46 reports one way to solve the...
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