Posts Tagged: "cease and desist"

Though the owners of the MLP Online site seemed to be aware of the fact that their game was infringing on the Hasbro trademark, they went ahead and constructed the game anyway. However, they are not upset with Hasbro for issuing the cease and desist. The moderator of the online fan site stated that, “Hasbro is not to be blamed here. As per U.S. Trademark law, as soon as an infringement comes to light, they are obligated to defend the trademark, or they will lose it. They had no choice in the matter, regardless of what they thought of the project or how it benefited them. At this time, our game is no longer in development.”

Anyone who is even casually interested in patents and innovation has to know that over the past few years there have been massive patent battles surrounding the major innovators, copy-cats and manufacturers involved in the smart phone industry. According to the ITC, “Smartphone companies involved in Section 337 investigations during the first half of FY 2012 include: Apple (14), HTC (8), Motorola (4), Samsung (3), RIM (3), Nokia (3), and LG (1).” This has required the ITC to increase staff, and has been a burden on the Commission. But none of those companies are NPEs, are they? It seems the patent infringer lobby is using increases in ITC filings to support their preferred policy position despite the lack of a causal connection.

On Thursday, June 7, 2012, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) announced that it had launched an investigation into whether certain RF Micro Devices, Inc. (RFMD) products infringe patents owned by Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation, a leading provider of high-performance radio-frequency (RF) integrated circuits (ICs). The action and investigation initiated by the ITC include Motorola Mobility, Inc. and HTC Corporation (HTC), whose products incorporate the alleged infringing RF ICs. Peregrine holds numerous U.S. and foreign patents based on its work in developing and manufacturing high-performance products that can be produced using standard CMOS-based semiconductor manufacturing processes. These patented innovations allow RF solutions to be produced with a combination of high levels of monolithic integration and performance, small size and low power consumption.

On February 3, 2012, I had the pleasure of interviewing Deborah Cohn, the Commissioner for Trademarks at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Part 1 of the interview was published yesterday. What follows is the remainder of the interview. We discussed a range of topics in this segment, including average pendency of trademark applications, cease and desist practice and some of the misleading letters sent to trademark owners and applicants from various third-parties that provide dubious publication services.