licensee
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It’s Best If the Registrant Files the Lawsuit
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 U.S.C. […] Continue reading
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Only Owners (Or Licensees) Can Bring a Claim Under the Federal Trade Secrets Act
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 not […] Continue reading
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I Think This One Is Wrong
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 form […] Continue reading
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The Contract Without End – What the Parties Did
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 didn’t […] Continue reading
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The Contract Without End
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 out […] Continue reading
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STOLI Is Back
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 Treasury […] Continue reading
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An Indispensable Owner
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, of […] Continue reading
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Which Distributor Owns the Mark?
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 UK […] Continue reading
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Del Monte vs. Del Monte
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 that […] Continue reading
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