• Posts Tagged ‘trade secret’

    The Danger of Overreaching

    by  • March 11, 2012 • copyright, patent, trade dress, trademark

    drawing and specimen for plaintiff’s trade dress registration Plaintiff Lauren Brenner started Pure Power Boot Camp, a military-style exercise facility. She hired the defendants and they decided to start a competing business called Warrior Fitness Boot Camp. The defendants behaved despicably; while still her employees they had one’s client/girlfriend promote Warrior Fitness to Pure...

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    Giving An Idea to Your Employer

    by  • December 23, 2011 • copyright

    If an employee has a pre-existing idea that he or she brings to the employer, who owns it? At first blush it seems pretty easy, that the employee would own it. What, though, if the employer puts time, effort and money into developing the idea, then what? This is the situation in Woodfords Family...

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    MGA Entertainment Wins Bratz! (For Now)

    by  • April 22, 2011 • copyright, trademark

    Image from Counterfeit Chic “Staggering blow.”“Major reversal.”“Plastic cat fight of epic proportions.” “Astonishing loss.”  It just doesn’t get more dramatic than this.  In the everlasting dispute over ownership of the Bratz doll franchise, Mattel’s original $100 million verdict in the first trial is gone. Now Mattel gets a paltry $10,000 on an intentional interference...

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    Can a Trade Secret Licensee State a Claim?

    by  • May 15, 2010 • trade secret

    It can in Wisconsin. In Metso Minerals Industries, Inc. v. FLSmidth-Excel LLC, there was no question that the plaintiff, Metso, was only a licensee of the secret, not the owner. Two of the defendants were former employees of Metso and one of its licensees, but now are employees of the corporate defendant Excel. Metso...

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    I Own It When I See It

    by  • January 16, 2009 • trade secret

    How many people can own knowledge? Banks give merchants a line of credit for credit card transactions. The banks use independent service organizations (ISOs) to sign up merchants for the bank’s services and to provide the equipment needed to process the transactions. Merchants submit their sales to a payment processor, which transmits the information...

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    Keeping a Trade Secret Secret May Not Be Enough

    by  • December 31, 2008 • trade secret

    The trade secret form of intellectual property is unique because its very existence requires that it have economic value. Patents and copyrights don’t need to (and often don’t) generate a dime. Trademarks must be used in commerce to exist, but they don’t have to be used in an income-producing way. But the definition of...

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    A Patently Untenable Trademark Claim

    by  • November 27, 2008 • trademark

    Plaintiff Robert Welsh d/b/a Big Ten Development pitched the idea of a “Big Ten Network” to the Big Ten Conference. Big Ten Conference wasn’t interested at the time, but several years later introduced the “Big Ten Network” and filed trademark applications to register the mark in various classes. Welsh brought suit under § 38...

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    How to Make Money on Dow Futures

    by  • October 3, 2008 • trade secret

    Most trade secret cases, in evaluating whether there is a trade secret or not, are looking at the degree to which secrecy was maintained, or analyzing whether the particular subject matter is of a type that may be protected through trade secret. Fishkin v. Susquehanna Partners G.P. (a declaratory judgment action) is a more unusual case...

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