Property, Intangible


The blog focuses on issues involving the ownership of intellectual property such as disputed ownership, creation of rights, and licensing.

Author: Pamela Chestek is an in-house intellectual property lawyer and adjunct professor.

Blawg Related Categories: Intellectual Property Law • In-house Lawyer

Recent Posts from Property, Intangible


  • Making Your Bed

    The 7th Circuit decision in Sunstar, Inc. v. Alberto-Culver Co. is interesting in two ways: it provides some insight into how one company is managing the Japanese market, and also provides a little…

  • The Twenty Year Registration Is Dead*

    Copyright Infringement Masquarading as Ownership

    The Tennessean, in an article entitled "'Atomic Dog' singer wins claim to phrase," reports that "The phrase 'bow wow wow, yippie yo, yippie yea' belongs exclusively to funk legend George Clinton, a panel of federal…

  • The Coinco Strategy

    Mars, Inc. v. Coin Acceptors, Inc., first blogged here, demonstrated what can go wrong with ownership of patents within a corporate enterprise. As a refresher, in Mars the defendant, "Coinco," successfully attacked the chain of…

  • The Restaurant Owns It, of Course

    When the dispute over the ownership of the name of the famous restaurant "Tavern on the Green" started, I posted a poll asking whether the restaurant or New York City owned the name. The results…

  • Contract Interpretation Quiz

    Interpret this contract, reproduced below in full:In consideration of the sum of One Dollar ($1.00) and other good, valuable, and adequate consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of which is acknowledged, the undersigned does hereby sell,…

  • Memorylink Gets to Fight Another Day

    Last February, plaintiff Memorylink was on the losing side of a motion to dismiss almost all counts of a complaint against Motorola, a company with which it had a joint development agreement. During their relationship,…

  • It's Alive! Or On Life Support, at Least

    Candy company Mars has a convoluted ownership saga for some patents related to currency acceptors in vending machines. In a classic case of the left hand not being introduced to the right, Mars, Inc. had…

  • Logo Designer Loses Again After No Show

    A few days ago, the court in the Middle District of Florida held that the company that designed the logo for the "Beef O'Brady" restaurant did not own the logo for promotional goods, as blogged…

  • Standing or Not? Answer

    Here is the answer to yesterday's post:The court held that Balsam was the owner of the patent and therefore had standing to bring suit. Although San Marco was the owner of the patent in 2005,…