• Posts Tagged ‘licensee’

    It’s Best If the Registrant Files the Lawsuit

    by  • January 9, 2023 • trademark • 0 Comments

    This is something that I probably shouldn’t have to blog about, but here we are. Plaintiff Palm Beach Concours LLC filed a complaint against defendant SuperCar Week, Inc. for: Count I, trademark infringement in violation of 15 U.S.C. § 1114 (infringement of a registered trademark); Count II for unfair competition in violation of 15...

    Read more →

    Only Owners (Or Licensees) Can Bring a Claim Under the Federal Trade Secrets Act

    by  • April 20, 2020 • trade secret • 0 Comments

    In 2016 the United States enacted trade secret law at the federal level. Before that, trade secret law was available only at the state level, meaning a patchwork of different standards and no federal jurisdiction for claims. The Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”), changed that. Like trademark law, the federal trade secret law does...

    Read more →

    I Think This One Is Wrong

    by  • September 18, 2017 • trademark • 1 Comment

    Moreno v. Pro Boxing Supplies, Inc. is a precedential decision and, IMHO, clearly contrary to the Board’s controlling precedent. Opposer and petitioner Julie Moreno is the exclusive US licensee of the unregistered trademark CASANOVA for boxing equipment: Applicant and Registrant Pro Boxing Supplies is the owner of a registration for CASANOVA in standard character...

    Read more →

    The Contract Without End – What the Parties Did

    by  • August 18, 2016 • copyright • 2 Comments

    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...

    Read more →

    The Contract Without End

    by  • August 16, 2016 • copyright • 6 Comments

    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...

    Read more →

    It’s All About the Facts

    by  • July 18, 2016 • trademark • 0 Comments

    Who the true trademark owner is, as between a member of an LLC (or shareholder of a close corporation) and the entity that the person owns, can be a vexing question. When there are only one or two owners of an entity the lines are very blurry—see here and here and here and here...

    Read more →

    STOLI Is Back

    by  • January 11, 2016 • trademark • 0 Comments

    This is my sixth post (recursive link) about the STOLI case. The defendant, Spirits International B.V., claims to own the STOLI and STOLICHNAYA trademarks as a result of privatization during the collapse of the Soviet Union and is listed as the owner of the trademark registrations. The Russian government, acting through state entity Federal...

    Read more →

    An Indispensable Owner

    by  • October 21, 2013 • trademark • 1 Comment

    We know from Florida Prepaid that a State has sovereign immunity in federal intellectual property cases, so that it can only be required to appear in federal court if it has waived the immunity. This principle has ended a trademark infringement case before it got started. It’s an odd fact pattern. Plaintiff Richard Diaz,...

    Read more →

    Which Distributor Owns the Mark?

    by  • September 16, 2013 • trademark • 0 Comments

    Hold on, we’ve got a complicated one here. Save it for your “very long reading” queue. One trademark, three potential owners in the distribution chain with overlapping periods of time during which they claim ownership. The mark: “Smart Candle” (Smart Candles, SMARTCANDLE, SmartCandles, etc.) for electronic candles. The companies: Smartcandle.co.uk Limited (“SCK”) — non-party...

    Read more →

    Del Monte vs. Del Monte

    by  • August 7, 2013 • domain name • 0 Comments

    My last post was on the Legal Rights Objection (LRO) between Merck KGaA and Merck & Co., and today it’s the one between Del Monte Corp. and Del Monte International GmbH. Both are proceedings between parties that have a common history and an ongoing relationship defined by agreements. Nevertheless, in Merck, the Panel found...

    Read more →