WB Hobbit Lawsuit The estate of Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkein has sued Warner Brothers, producers of the upcoming trilogy of Hobbit movies, for copyright and trademark infringement over an alleged breach of the original 1969 contract that assigned merchandising rights to Tolkein’s novels. The Tolkein estate is demanding funds in excess of $80 million, and is asking the court to order WB to cease all allegedly infringing uses of the works and for all such works to be recalled from the market.
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Archives: Trademarks
Twinkies Trademark for Sale
November 16, 2012
Twinkies Trademark for Sale Hostess trademarks for sale! Get your Twinkies trademark right here! Sadly, trademarks are not usually sold by old-timey ballpark vendors, although if someone wants to start that trend, I’m happy to sign the petition. But today’s news that Hostess Brands, Inc. is going out of business means that Hostess’ portfolio of brand names, along with the company’s other assets, is, in fact, on the market. What does it mean to sell a trademark, and how does it work?
Color as a Trademark
October 30, 2012
Color as a Trademark In a few previous blog posts, I’ve discussed the concept of color as a trademark. I looked at why the pink color of Pepto-Bismol was not able to be used as a trademark – because it was determined to be a functional feature of the product (it was in my blog post about the shape of Hershey bars), and, more recently, I looked at a case in which Rawlings was trying to protect the color gold in connection with baseball gloves as a trademark. Rawlings, of course, is famous for their Gold Glove awards. Since this…
Sprouts v. Sprouts: Regional Trademark Disputes
October 16, 2012
Sprouts v. Sprouts: Regional Trademark Disputes Many of my Southern California-area readers will be familiar with the Sprouts Farmers Market chain of grocery stores. San Diego’s Boney family originally operated several stores as “Boney’s.” Following the death of founder Henry Boney, the names were changed to “Henry’s.” Recently, stores in the Southern California region saw another name change, this time to “Sprouts Farmers Market.” This is because of a merger between the Henry’s stores and the Arizona-based Sprouts Farmers Market chain (which, confusingly, was also founded by the Boney family). The merged company is now owned by a hedge fund….
