TTABlog
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Just Because You Don’t Manufacture Doesn’t Mean You’re a “Distributor”
John Welch at The TTABlog summarizes a case that is characterized as a manufacturer-distributor dispute over the ownership of the mark “UVF861” for UV light bulbs. John does a thorough job summarizing the case, which I won’t repeat here. In its opinion, the TTAB applied the presumption that in a manufacturer-distributor relationship, the manufacturer owns […] Continue reading
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One Cannot Put a Would-Be Franchise Back Together
I was all stoked because one of the most complicated trademark ownership cases I’ve ever seen, C.F.M. Distributing Co. v. Costantine, was appealed to the Federal Circuit. Super! Clarification from a Court of Appeals on trademark ownership! Sigh. Affirmed under Rule 36 without an opinion. Oral argument here. The text of this work is licensed […] Continue reading
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Abandoned and Adopted
Well, here’s a teaser of a case we might never know more about. The mark INTRAV has been registered since 1968 for travel agency services and is now owned by International Expeditions, Inc. A company called Christine E, LLC filed a petition to cancel the mark on the basis of abandonment: After diligent inquiry, Petitioner […] Continue reading
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I Have Never Seen An Ownership Case So Complicated
I’ve read a lot of cases with convoluted fact patterns, which I guess is how they end up in litigation. But C.F.M. Dist. Co. v. Costantine, an opposition before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, is in the stratosphere of convoluted. Not surprisingly, it’s about a family business. In a 44-page decision, 4 pages are […] Continue reading
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The TTAB Comes to Boston
John Welch has done his usual stellar job of convincing the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to come to Boston to conduct a hearing. Sponsored by the Trademark Committee of the Boston Patent Law Association, the Board will sit at the Northeastern University School of Law on April 29th in the afternoon. The case is […] Continue reading
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When Do You Exist?
Once I did some legal research on unincorporated associations. How do you know when you have one? Is your regular Friday night poker game an unincorporated association? (My aunt played poker with the same people for 50 years – surely that was an unincorporated association.) What about when members change, what happens then? When does […] Continue reading
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Yes, I Might Have
Petitioners, circa 1988 John Welch at the TTABlog added a new category, “Would You Have Petitioned?” In the case of Augustine’s Spiritual Goods, Inc. v. Augustine’s Eternal Gifts, LLC, maybe I would have. The decision as argued and decided was a no-brainer, but it looks like there’s a disconnect between the case that was argued […] Continue reading
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Fraud is Very Popular
John Welch at the TTABlog asks, would you have opposed? It’s another case where a claim of fraud was premised on the theory that the applicant wasn’t the owner of the mark. The applicant Galaxy Metal Gear, Inc. Direct Access Technology, Inc. (DAT) applied for METAL GEAR for hard drive enclosures. It had them manufactured […] Continue reading
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Fraud is Really Hard to Prove
The TTABlog reports on a case involving a fairly common type of dispute, between a manufacturer and importer, albeit with a twist. I’ll elaborate a little more on the claim that relates to the ownership of the mark. The importer was the registrant of the mark ZYTNIA for vodka; the Polish manufacturer filed a petition […] Continue reading
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Meet Those Who Blog
The wait is over – we have the Official Announcement from the TTABlog for this year’s Meet the Bloggers (VI, for those keeping count), although we are still anxiously awaiting the moniker assigned this year by the Trademark Blog (back story here). Yours truly has the honor of co-hosting this year, still riding the coattails […] Continue reading
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