Intellectulaw

DEFINING THE ARENA OF PARALLEL GOODS, AKA GRAY GOODS - PART 2

Sun, 1 Nov 2009 21:40:42 -0800

The United States Supreme Court defined a parallel import, commonly referred to as "gray market" goods or simply gray goods, to be, "a foreign-manufactured good, bearing a valid United States trademark, that is imported without the consent of the United States trademark holder."

The second scenario that will be discussed involves the Japanese electronics manufacturer Yamaha-Japan, which owns American trademarks under its wholly owned American subsidiary Yamaha-America, who filed a lawsuit against the American importer, ABC International, for the importation of goods bearing the Yamaha trademarks without the approval or sanction of Yamaha-America, the owner of those marks. However, in this case, the trademark holders were not so lucky.

GUCCI DEFENDS THE PRICE OF FAME

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:09:39 -0700

Gucci America, Inc., Balenciaga, S.A., and Balenciaga America Inc. (collectively the "Plaintiffs") are alleging that Curveal Fashion, doing business as ReplicaSi.com and Semelur.com, is using these websites to sell counterfeit products that infringe on Plaintiffs' trademarks. The Plaintiffs further allege that ReplicaSi.com and Semelur.com both make liberal use of Plaintiffs' respective trademarks to indicate an explicit connection between their counterfeit products and the Plaintiffs' products.

SHARK EXPERT LOOKS TO TAKE A BITE OUT OF INTELLECTUAL CRIME

Sun, 4 Oct 2009 01:26:48 -0700

Richard Ellis is an author, lecturer, and visual artist. In 1991, Mr. Ellis illustrated an co-authored a work of non-fiction entitled "Great White Shark," which is a complete, definitive, and scientific account of the great white shark. According to the Complaint initiating the Action, Lions Gate and Nu Image introduced and distributed a film entitled Shark Attack 3: Megalodon, that allegedly misrepresents Mr. Ellis and his book.

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY GETS SUED BY FORMER STUDENT

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:41:07 -0700

Fleurimond was a student employee working as an equipment room clerk back in 2007 when she was propositioned by the associate director of the athletic department to create a feline mascot. She developed a caricatured drawing of a cougar named "Orion," to which NYU commenced duplicating, manufacturing, etc. without her permission or knowledge. However it would seem that NYU is out of luck, if according to Ariel's claims, her peice was copyrighted before its public use.

DEFINING THE ARENA OF PARALLEL GOODS, AKA GRAY GOODS - PART 1

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:48:43 -0700

The first segment of this series will discuss how the sale of Gray goods can occur when a domestic entity purchases the rights to register and use a foreign entity's trademark in the United States to sell and distribute merchandise that bears the foreign trademarks. Thereafter, the foreign firm or a third party under license from the foreign firm, imports its own merchandise into the United States for sale and distribution.