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Licensing Attorneys
Michael G. Atkins
Graham & Dunn PC
December 15, 2008
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Naked Licensing of Trademarks
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Definition of naked
licensing
Approving use of one’s trademark
without exercising control over the
quality of the goods or services
provided under the mark
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Trademark principles
A trademark:
−
Symbolizes goodwill
− Assures consistency of quality
deceptive” 4
Example of naked
licensing
• “Give me some loot and use the
name.”
• TTAB found petitioner engaged in
“inadequately controlled licensing”
of PIED PIPERS mark
• Owner Clark Yocum abandoned
rights in mark
Yocum v. Covington,
216 U.S.P.Q. 210 (TTAB 1982)
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Abandonment of trademark
rights
important
• Licensor can block unwanted
sublicenses even if sublicenses are
permitted
Miller v. Glenn Miller,
454 F.3d 975 (9th Cir. 2006) 9
Recent case law
Halo Management v. Interland, 2004
WL 1781013 (N.D. Calif.)
• License agreement required licensee
to:
− “Employ reasonable commercial efforts
to maintain positive business value of
HALO mark”
− To limit mark use to that as shown in
pending applications
− To mitigate confusion or likelihood of
confusion
• Held: Defendants’ S/J motion to dismiss
owner’s infringement claim granted 10
Recent case law
Bach v. Forever Living Prods., 473
F.Supp.2d 1110 (W.D. Wash. 2007)
(Pechman, J.)
• No express quality control provision
− Trademark owner reserved “moral rights” in
copyrighted work that served as trademark
− Owner would “establish and protect validity
of rights” if attacked by third parties
− In separate agreement, owner reserved
right to veto change in movie title and to
approve score to movie
• Held: Defendants’ S/J motion to
dismiss owner’s infringement claim 11
Recent case law
Experience Hendrix v. Electric Hendrix,
2008 WL 3243896 (W.D. Wash.)
(Zilly, J.)
• Quality control procedures, including
inspection of prospective licensee
prototypes to ensure mark properly
displayed and that Jimi Hendrix not
placed in a bad light, deemed
sufficient
• Held: Owner’s S/J motion to dismiss 12
Questions?
Michael Atkins
Graham & Dunn PC
(206) 340-9614
matkins@grahamdunn.com
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