California Intellectual Property Blog

San Diego – Apparently, Carole Baskin isn’t the only one with a grudge against Netflix’s hit Tiger King series.

In a copyright lawsuit filed September 14, 2020, Timothy Sepi, the sole owner of Whyte Monkee Productions, is alleging that the Netflix documentary series, Tiger King, features clips shot and owned by Sepi. These clips, he claims, were shown without giving him proper credit or monetary compensation for his work.

Tiger King premiered on Netflix in March of 2020, and quickly became a viral sensation. The documentary focuses on the life of Joe Exotic, a zookeeper and convicted felon, whose breeding of tigers in the Read the rest

Orange County – On July 21, the Department of the Air Force filed two more trademarks for its Space Force branch. The Air Force’s latest two trademark filings, serial number 90064981 and 90064998, are variations of the newest military branch’s logo. The Air Force unveiled these designs at the Pentagon on July 22.

The new logo has an arrow pointing up and a star in the center of the arrow. The design represents Polaris, the north star. The elements of this logo invoke the history of the Air Force and the space domain. If granted, th Read the rest

Los Angeles – Eros Innovations LLC has recently filed 21 trademarks for “Mike Tyson’s Legends Only League.” This league, first announced in late July, will feature competitions between retired athletes. Although the Legends Only League is championed by Mike Tyson, the former undisputed heavyweight boxing champion of the world, the intention of the league is to host famous athletes from a number of different sports, including tennis, basketball, and boxing.

Eros Innovations filed three different types of trademarks bearing the Legends Only League moniker: a standard character mark protecting “Mike Tyson’s Read the rest

San Diego – On July 23, 2020, the trademark for “Washington Football Team” was filed with the USPTO under application number 90069568. This move came as Pro Football, Inc., the corporate owner of the NFL team, has come under the national spotlight again regarding its previous name, the Washington Redskins.

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests across the United States in the summer of 2020, FedEx, the team’s stadium sponsor, threatened to withdraw funding if the team did not change its name. Shortly after the ultimatum, on July 13 2020, the football team announced it would retire the 87-year-old name and rebrand Read the rest

Orange County – Nick Jonas – along with Jonas Brothers Enterprises, LLC – have been sued by Joshua Wong Photography, LLC for copyright infringement. The complaint was filed yesterday June 22, 2020 in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York.  The claim stems from a photograph of Priyanka Chopra that was shared by Nick Jonas on both Instagram and Twitter. Joshua Wong Photography claims the use was unauthorized and thus a violation of the Copyright Act.

On December 5, 2019, an image of Priyanka Chopra was shared from the

Los Angeles – Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard has lost his copyright infringement case against Nike relating to his famous Klaw logo that resembles his hand.

Leonard shared his logo idea with Nike in 2011 with a rough sketch.  Nike and Leonard then worked together to create the logo. The player offered the design idea that Nike improved upon, and this logo was used and endorsed by both parties for years. When their contract ended in 2018, however, Leonard claimed he had the right to continue using the design and that Nike committed fraud through copyright registration< Read the rest

San Diego – It was shocking news when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers added former New England Patriot QB Tom Brady in free agency. Brady played for the Patriots for 20 seasons, the longest in NFL history that any quarterback had ever played for one NFL team. Upon his arrival, Brady quickly filed multiple trademark applications related to his new town.

Brady is currently seeking the trademark rights to TB x TB which was filed on March 20th by Yee & Dubin Sports, LLC, and Tompa Bay and Tampa Brady which were filed on April 6th by TEB Capital Management, Inc. which is Tom Brady’s company. The TB x TB trademark was filed in re Read the rest

Los Angeles – Delta Air Lines, Inc. recently sued Marriott International, Inc. for trademark infringement for utilizing the DELTA trademark in relation to hotels. Marriott purchased the Canadian Delta hotel chain in 2015 and has been expanding its Delta hotels throughout Canada and now into the U.S. Delta claims that with a recent Marriott rebranding they are now even copying the designs and color schemes of Delta’s logo.

Delta is claiming that Marriott has completely disregarded Delta’s trademark rights to gain commercial benefit from travelers that are looking for a hotel while on the road. Delta is obviously a signific Read the rest

Orange County – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle surprised the world recently with their decision to leave the Royal Family. One complication with the decision was what to do with their recent trademark filings for Sussex Royal. The Sussex Royal brand was created as part of a business venture but with the decision to no longer be royals, they have decided to abandon the trademarks.
In statements, both Harry and Meghan have expressed their unconditional support to the Queen. However, they will no longer be in collaboration with the Commonwealth duties. It appears that the royal family decided it would Read the rest

San Diego – Amazon has recently been awarded a patent which details how robots might one day deliver packages to your front door.  The patent reveals how a self-driving vehicle with a robot on board along with multiple boxes in protective compartments would be programmed to travel into a residential area to make multiple deliveries.  It is also confirmed that the robot would also be able to pick up items for return, too.  <!–more–>

The patents fits into an Amazon patent portfolio which includes patents for drone deliveries and automated grocery stores that automatically check you out as you leave the store.

With t Read the rest