River West Brands
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Secondary Source Marks and Abandonment
UPDATE: The parties settled, divvying up the brands. I haven’t written about “zombie” or “heritage” marks in a long time. I last wrote in 2011, about a suit involving department store brands that Macy’s acquired and rebranded, abandoning the original names of Marshall Field’s, I. Magnin, Burdine’s, Kaufmann’s, Lazarus, Meir & Frank, Rich’s and Strawbridge’s. […] Continue reading
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Zombie Brand Rising From the Dead?
I just watched the most recent episode of Mad Men, “The Strategy.” The “strategy” is for an advertising campaign for the Burger Chef chain of fast food restaurants. Here’s the closing shot of the episode, with Pete, Peggy and Don sitting in a Burger Chef: Anyone eaten at a Burger Chef lately—anyone? According to Wikipedia, there aren’t […] Continue reading
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Zombie Department Stores Rise (as ugly t-shirts)
There’s been a fair amount written about “heritage,” “dead” or “zombie” brands, including by me. These are brands that aren’t being used anymore by the original owner, but they still have resonance with consumers. A third party comes along specifically with the intent of exploiting the consumer recognition by creating a new offering around the […] Continue reading
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Abandoned, No Surprise
Some cases make you wonder more about the lawyers. Did they come in to the situation too late and just have a mess to clean up? Have they counseled their clients about their odds? Original Rex, LLC v. Beautiful Brands International, LLC just looks like such a long shot, but some clients can’t be deterred. […] Continue reading
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Why the Paperwork is Important
Defendant River West Brands LLC is a company that, in its own words, “identifies, acquires, redevelops, and monetizes iconic brand intellectual property that is significantly distressed.” In other words, its business is in zombie brands. I previously blogged on some of the methods the company uses here. It’s a business model with fairly significant challenges, […] Continue reading
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NY Times on Revival of Brands
There’s an interesting NYT article that attributes the resurgence of revived brands (blogged here) to tougher economic times – it’s cheaper to revive than build from scratch. © 2008 Pamela Chestek Continue reading
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Goodwill for Sale
The area of “residual goodwill” seems to be a hot one lately. I posted recently on River West Brands and Chrysler LLC v. Pimpo, two “residual goodwill” situations, and the TTABlog recently posted on a third one involving the LaSalle trademark for automobiles. “Residual goodwill” describes the significance of a trademark when it is no […] Continue reading
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“Heritage” Brands Revisited
Thanks to John Welch for pointing me to a new decision from the TTAB, Chrysler LLC v. Pimpo. Chrysler LLC opposed the registration of the mark RAMBLER for “automobiles and structural parts therefor” by Anthony S. Pimpo. RAMBLER is, of course, a model of car that was produced from 1950 to 1969 – you may […] Continue reading
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Who Owns a Dead Mark? Ask River West Brands
We’ve all encountered clients who believe that when a mark is unregistered, or the registration lapses, the client can immediately start using the trademark and take advantage of its residual goodwill. Brand significance can live on for many years and a newcomer may see an opportunity to leverage the goodwill in an unused mark to […] Continue reading
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