krispy boot

No, really, who puts a traffic boot on an ambulance? Defendant allegedly puts a traffic boot on an ambulance parked in its lot (while the EMS were attending to someone in defendant’s store), and there is unauthorized infringing sign in the background. See the complaint at para. 74 for the story (and photo). Plaintiff sells Krispy Krunchy Chicken, a proprietary processed bird.

krispy krunchy
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Plaintiff’s predecessor in interest adopted the mark iBooks for both physical books and ebooks in 1999. It had some success, and had annual sales of up to $2 million by 2005. Its trademark application however had been rejected on descriptiveness and mis-descriptiveness grounds. In 2006 the CEO of predecessor died in a car accident, plunging it into bankruptcy. Plaintiff purchases all assets, including the iBook mark, for $125k. This becomes an important fact, as it suggests an extremely low value for the mark at that point. Sales never exceed ‘modest’ (perhaps $100k annually) from that point on. Apple adopts the mark iBook for its eBook reader, in 2010. I am currently reading the novel ‘Spin‘ using that reader. Apple purchased a prior reg for iBook covering some hardware and software. Plaintiff approaches Apple attempting to license, Apple doesn’t pursue, plaintiff sues, based on common law rights.

Held (at summary judgment): iBook is a descriptive mark, and secondary meaning has not been established, so there is no trademark.

colby v apple ibook
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