standing
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Who Can Enforce the Mark?
I previously wrote about an unusual case in Florida, where a state agency alleged infringement of registered trademarks. The lawsuit was dismissed for lack of standing, with the district court reaching the conclusion that the enabling statute for the agency didn’t grant it the right to enforce its trademarks. According to the statute, Florida VirtualSchool is… Continue reading
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How to Do a Copyright Assignment So You Can Sue
I’ve written before about a bunch of copyright infringement lawsuits brought by numerous photo agencies claiming that book publishers exceeded the scope of licenses granted, either by publishing in unlicensed territories or printing more copies than permitted by the license. The photo agency business model presents litigation challenges, though: only the legal or beneficial owner… Continue reading
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What Doesn’t Work for Copyright Standing
Screen Media Ventures filed a copyright infringement suit against BitTorrent downloaders of the movie “Infected” and sought leave to subpoena internet service providers for subscriber information. Screen Media claimed this language gave it enough ownership interest to have standing for the claim: [Screen Media is authorized] by itself, or in the name of Infected LLC… Continue reading
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Too Many Transactions
Six inventors, four changes in ownership before the patent issued and four more after. That’s a recipe for a standing problem. In Mayfair Wireless LLC v. Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless, Mayfair Wireless did a lot of due diligence and even some extra clean-up — it had the six original inventors assign any rights to… Continue reading
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It’s Quiz Time!
This is a copyright case. Here is the sequence of events according to the plaintiffs’ timeline: 1995: Image created by artist Beasley 1997: Image used by defendant with permission 2003: Image used by defendant without permission 2009: Image used by defendant without permission 2009: Assignment of the copyright in the image from Beaseley to his… Continue reading
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Do Your Homework
Since the Acacia Research Group‘s business model is based on acquiring patents, you would expect them to be fairly diligent about ensuring that the chain of title is solid. But it wasn’t in Endotach LLC v. Cook Medical Inc. Endotach claimed to be an exclusive licensee of two patents, having acquired its rights from Acacia.… Continue reading
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The Court of Appeals Confirms “Registrant” Means What It Says
I’ve already written a couple of times about Federal Treasury Enterprise Sojuzplodoimport v. SPI Spirits Ltd. The plaintiff in the case, FTE, manages the STOLICHNAYA trademark on behalf of the Russian government. The first time the case went to the Court of Appeals, the appeals court reversed the trial court and held that the incontestability… Continue reading
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It’s Hard to Be a Copyright Troll
I previously reported on a pending case, Contra Piracy v. Does 1-2919, where the court very quickly raised the issue of standing – sua sponte, because it’s still a John Doe case. The savvy court suspected something was up and put the plaintiff to its proof. Owning the bare right to sue isn’t enough for… Continue reading
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A Patent Owner Who Doesn’t Own the Patent
I’ve often written about the various categories of potential plaintiffs in patent infringement suits. Depending on what rights a licensee acquired, it may or may not have constitutional standing to bring a patent infringement lawsuit. A new case, CopyTele, Inc. v. E Ink Holdings, Inc., comes at it from a somewhat different angle — here,… Continue reading
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