Letter from AmeriKat II - Kibbles 'n Bits

NY swipes in for Tavern on the Green - The AmeriKat previously reported about the struggle between the owners of Tavern on the Green, the LeRoys, and the New York City to the rights to the name "Tavern on the Green". The name, allegedly, has accumulated a value of $19 million since the name's establishment in 1934. Back in September, as reported by the New York Times, Connie Pankratz, a spokeswoman for New York’s Law Department, stated that “the city will be taking legal action to assert our right to the Tavern on the Green trade mark”. Last Wednesday Judge Cedarbaum ruled that New York City owns the rights in the name following Mr. LeRoy's "deliberate misstatements and omissions" that caused the trade mark registration filed by Mr. LeRoy to be "obtained fraudulently." The LeRoy family who filed for bankruptcy last year had hoped to sell the rights in the name to pay off more than 450 creditors - all of whom will be reeling following the Judge's ruling. Michael Cardozo, the city's corporation counsel, stated that it was a

"major victory for the city and all New Yorkers. We have ensured that the legacy of the long-treasured restaurant will be preserved for generations to come."

The New York Times reports that Gerald E. Singelton, senior IP lawyer for the NYC Law Department, stated that "it is a remarkable decision in finding fraud, and therefore unusual."

The AmeriKat thanks Miri Frankel, Associate General Counsel, from The Beanstalk Group for bringing it to the Kat's attention.

Apple issued warning shots before suing HTC - Last week the AmeriKat wrote about the latest in the mobile patent war litigation about Apple and HTC. It now appears that prior to the suit Apple had warned competitive handset manufacturers that they had planned to take legal action against infringers of the iPhone. According to Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner (as reported by Fortune), Apple's warning shots appeared to 'disrupt the development roadmaps for would-be iPhone killers." Reiner also stated that

"Rival software and hardware teams are going back to the drawing board to look for work-arounds. Lawyers are redoubling efforts to gauge potential defensive and offensive responses. And strategy teams are working to chart OS strategies that are better hedged,"

Apple has currently acquired almost 3000 patents, Google 316, and HTC 58.

USPTO launches E-Zine - For those of you who, after reading the entirety of the Law Society Gazette in four seconds, require further legal intrigue, the UPSTO has something to offer you. Launched last month, their bi-monthly e-zine entitled "Inventors Eye" is, according to the website, "for and about America’s independent and small entity inventor community. It is a community that has always been a vital and vibrant part of America’s invention heritage." In the first issue, USPTO director David Kappos focuses on the benefits of the impending Patent Reform Bill.

Lindsay Lohan sues over E-Trade Ad - It was only a matter of time before Lindsay Lohan would turn up in an IP dispute. Last Monday, Lohan filed a lawsuit in Nassau County New York Supreme Court alleging that an E-Trade commercial employing the use of singing/dancing babies misappropriated her "name and characterization." The lawsuit claims damages in the region of a mere $100 million ($50 million in compensatory and $50 million in exemplary damages) and an injunction. In the commercial, a baby boy is conversing with a baby girl in the manner of a 20-some romantic couple. The baby girl is angry with the boy for not calling her the previous night and questions whether or not "that milkaholic, Lindsay" was over. Click this link to view the commercial. According to Lindsay's lawyer, Stephanie Ovadia in an interview with the NY Post, Lohan "has the same single-name recognition as Oprah or Madonna."...or, like AmeriKat....