Week 7
- The 7th Circuit Court named Beanie Babies manufacture Ty Inc. the winner in its trademark infringement case against Softbelly Inc. This decision ends the long standing trademark infringement case that started in 2000. Ty claimed that Softbelly's cleaning cleaners that were in the shape of animals and were called Screenie Beanies was infringing upon their trademark. This decision allows Ty to collect $713,000 in damages and another $300,000. Softbelly claimed that Ty had tampered with one of its witnesses and yanked the awarded money in damages to Ty.
This case relates to our class because in class we have been discussing trademark laws. There are many cases that we have read that demonstrate the many reasons and outcomes of various trademark infringement laws.
- Ethiopia won the trademark rights for its coffee, Sidamo, in the United States. They had been struggling for such a long time with Starbucks Corp over the use of the name in the United States. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office confirmed that Ethiopia is the sole owner of the Sidamo coffee trademark. In addition Ethiopia has secured the trademarks for Yirgacheffee coffee in the U.S. Starbucks decided to end its fight in November of '07. Ethiopia is currently trying to acquire the trademark rights for Harar coffee.
In our class we have been discussing the various trademark laws and their consequences. There is a certain levels of trademarks, from generic to fanciful. This demonstrates how "distinct" the mark actually is.
- The jury found that the U.S. Polo Association did not infringe on a Ralph Lauren trademark. The court rejected the claims from Lauren because they found that Daniel's had intentionally excluded evidence.Judge Pierre Leval asked the jury to find infringement of trademarks used by the polo association and Jordache Ltd., its licensee. Each one of these logos at issue demonstrates a pair of mounted players known as the "double horsemen marks." The first being a silhouette of two horsemen and the second is the same silhouette with the letter USA underneath They found that the fist was guilty of infringement but concluded that there was no chance of confusion between the three marks. PRL used the polo trademark but they had a license for its use. General counsel Lee Sporn claimed that the company never had consented to the use of the mark. PRL fought because they believed that the evidence violated Rule 408. The court ruled in favor of the U.S. Polo Association and they were very pleased at this outcome.
Trademarks are a phrase, symbol, word or even a simple design that identifies a company or the source of the goods from one place to another. This is what we have been discussing lately in our classes. Trademarks are extremely important because that is how one distinguishes between companies some times. In the case of big corporations such as McDonalds their trademark is worth a lot because the golden arches are associated with only them.