The Ninth Circuit affirmed (copy here) the district court’s trademark infringement ruling in favor of Volkswagon by denying Auto Gold’s “first sale” defense. Auto Gold purchased genuine VW badges from Volkswagon and then mounted the badges on its marquee license plates, which were sold to Auto Gold’s customers. Despite Auto…
Los Angeles – Fashion Designer Micah A. Cohen has been sued by his former employer, Swarm, LLC. Cohen apparently started the clothing company as a young designer and launched the “Shades of Greige” apparel line. Swarm alleges that Cohen was employed as a fashion designer until November 13, 2009, when…
Los Angeles, CA – EuropaCorp is a French motion picture studio that produced the feature film “I Love You Phillip Morris,” starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor. In a May 8, 2009 agreement, EuropaCorp licensed to Consolidated Pictures all domestic distribution rights in the movie, including all theatrical, home video,…
Los Angeles, CA – Tre Milano is the owner of the InStyler® trademark and several copyrights used in the sale and advertising of its hair styling product, including a copyright registration for its www.getinstyler.com website. You may have seen one of its infomercials for its “rotating iron” hair brush, a…
Los Angeles, CA – Automotive Racing Products manufactures a wide range of bolts, fasteners, and other parts and accessories for automobiles. In 1975, Plaintiff began using the ARP trademark, which was registered with the USPTO on January 19, 1988. Plaintiff is also the owner of the “2000” trademark, which was…
Los Angeles, CA – Plaintiff Anthony J. Antonious is the inventor of the “Metalwood Type Golf Club Head,” which is the subject of U.S. Design Patent D499,157. Simply put, a design patent covers the ornamental design or aesthetic configuration of a depicted product. Whereas a utility patent covers the way…
Los Angeles, CA – Zynga Game Network is a social gaming company and provides numerous games, such as Zynga Poker, Mafia Wars, FarmVille, YoVille, Cafe World and Word Twist, that are available on Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, iPhone and iPod Touch, among others. Zynga has several pending USPTO trademark applications for…
Los Angeles, CA – A copyright infringement lawsuit was filed by MGA Entertainment against QVC, Brookstone, and Rooftop Group USA. MGA claims that it created the Land Sea RC® amphibious vehicle that kids can remotely control. MGA is the owner of two copyright registrations covering the toy designs. MGA alleges…
Los Angeles, CA – TI Beverage Group, owner of the www.truebloodwine.com website, sued retailer Hot Topic and HBO executives Sophia Chang and James Costas for trademark infringement and unfair competition. TI makes both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and has used Vampire® as its trademark, in addition to other vampire related…
Hyundai’s website had a “build your own vehicle” (“BYO”) feature and a parts catalogue feature. The BYO feature allowed users to build their own vehicle by responding to choices on a menu, including color, pricing, engine, options, etc. Orion IP, LLC sued Hyundai for infringing a patented method for generating…