Texas Whataburger (“TEXAS”) adopts and obtains federal registration of mark in 1957. It expands regionally but not into Virginia. Virginia company (“VIRGINIA”) adopts virtually WHAT-A-BURGER for identical services, allegedly before 1957. It never expands beyond Virginia. TEXAS runs across VIRGINIA in 1970, and alleges ownership of superior rights. The matter remains unresolved. In 2002, TEXAS approaches VIRGINIA
Several former players (including Marques Haynes and Curly Neal) are suing the Harlem Globetrotters, alleging that the Globetrotters are selling merchandise bearing their likenesses, without authorization. Via SI.com.
JOE’S STONE CRAB v. JOE’S CRAB SHACK, via Miami Herald.
Application for JESUS JEANS rejected by UK trademark office on the grounds it would be morally offensive to the public, via Just-style.com. More here.
Turns out there is a robust and competitive market in paintballs. Pursuit Marketing, maker of the Marbalizer paintball (depicted), announced a settlement with Brass Eagle, for distributing its Viewloader line of paintballs, which allegedly infringed Pursuit’s patents for the manufacture of paintballs, as well as the trade dress of the Marbalizer paintball.
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So David Stein of Naiad Studios was sitting in front of the computer this week when:
“I had a friend forward the [Miss Piggy image] to me the other day, just thinking they were passing on a joke. I just STARED at the screen, like that bad picture of you in a leisure suit from
MONTEREY JACK cheese is named after David Jacks, Monterey land owner and dairy farmer.
Via deepikaglobal.com, an Indian research institute alleges that a US company has improperly registered the name JEEVANI, a ‘fatigue-busting wonder’ developed with the help of traditional herblore of the 16,000 member Jani tribe. However, looking at the U.S. register, the company identified in the article abandoned its application for JEEVANI (although it still uses the
Think about the ‘diverted off the highway’ metaphor from the MovieBuff case, the diverted from the Calivn Klein shop in Macy’s’ metaphor from the Playboy case.
Then consider this discussion on IPKat of presumably permissible in-store diversion, based on this AdAge article on in-store advertising.
UGG v. UGG for sheepskin boots. Is UGG a generic term for ugly? Story