July 18, 2018 Intellectual Property / Litigation / NFL

NFL Enterprises LLC Settles Patent Dispute

On July 10, 2018, NFL Enterprises LLC reached a settlement with OpenTV Inc. While the details of the settlement were not disclosed, the two parties did terminate their ongoing proceeding before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Patent Trial and Appeal Board and their ongoing lawsuit in the United States District Court of California. Back in May 2017, OpenTV and Nagravision SA filed eight patent infringement claims against the NFL Enterprises claiming that various video content used by the NFL Enterprises viewers on their …

July 5, 2017 Intellectual Property, Copyright, and Trademark

Gronk Spike Silhouette Ricocheted with Opposition from Nike

In April 2016, Rob Gronkowski’s new clothing and exercise equipment company, Gronk Nation, LLC, filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to trademark a silhouette of Gronkowski’s legendary Gronk spike for use on their products. Nike has filed a formal opposition, saying Gronk Nation’s logo could be confused with its “Jumpman” logo that the company has used since November 1987. Nike has trademark rights to use its logo in connection with clothing, footwear, sporting goods, hosting sporting events, and related products and services. Gronk …

June 28, 2017 Litigation

Helmet to Helmet: The latest in Schutt and Riddell’s IP Row

Football helmet maker Schutt Sports responded strongly to a bid by rival Riddell Inc. to throw away the IP suit—or to at least give Riddell home field advantage and move the claims to Illinois, where Riddell is headquartered. The suit revolves around Riddell’s alleged infringement on three of Schutt’s helmet design patents, U.S. Patent Nos. 8,938,818, 8,528,118 and 8,813,269. Schutt believes there is no reason to dismiss or move the case from Texas.

Schutt contends that Riddell has positioned itself to have a …

November 23, 2016 Intellectual Property, Copyright, and Trademark / NFL

Native American Groups File Brief in Support of Trademark Office’s Ban on Disparaging Trademarks

On November 16, 2016, Native American organizations, including the National Congress of American Indians, filed a brief of amici curiae in support of the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (PTO) ban on offensive and disparaging trademarks. The statute at issue before the Supreme Court is Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. 1052(a), which provides that no trademark will be refused registration because of content unless, inter alia, the trademark “[c]onsists of . . .matter[s] which may disparage . . . …

March 8, 2016 Litigation

Tit for Tat: Sports Apparel Giants Under Armour and Adidas Continue to Attack Each Other’s Patents

On Thursday, March 3, 2016, Under Armour argued to a Delaware federal judge that an Adidas patent for certain workout-tracking software and devices is overly broad. This is the latest development amidst a slew of ongoing intellectual property lawsuits between major sports apparel companies.

This particular dispute arises out of a lawsuit filed by Adidas in 2014, alleging that Under Armour infringed upon no less than ten mobile fitness patents owned by Adidas. Adidas further claimed that Under Armour’s director of innovation and research was …

January 15, 2015 Intellectual Property, Copyright, and Trademark

Football Helmet Maker Riddell Sued Rawlings for Patent Infringements

Sports equipment manufacturer Riddell filed a four-count lawsuit against Rawlings, another sporting goods maker, over five Rawlings helmet models—Tachyon, Impulse, Quantum, Momentum and Force—and shoulder pads that allegedly infringe on Riddell’s technology.

More specifically, the lawsuit involves three patents related to protective helmet designs and one related to shoulder pad design.

At the end of the 2013 season, NFL and Riddell agreed to end a deal that gave Riddell an exclusive right to put its name on the helmet’s nose bumper. For the approximately …

Michael Jackson Performs at Billboard Awards via Hologram with Assistance of Federal Judge

On May 16, 2014, U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson issued a ruling permitting the Billboard Music Awards to use a hologram performance featuring the deceased music icon Michael Jackson in an upcoming awards show.

The legal dispute over Jackson’s upcoming “performance” began after Hologram USA Inc. and Musion Das Hologram Ltd. (the “Plaintiffs”) sued the Estate of Michael Jackson and dick clark productions, alleging that the planned spectacle infringed on patents the Plaintiff’s held in 3-D image projection technologies. The Plaintiffs are most well known …

March 15, 2013 Intellectual Property

Nintendo Clobbered by Tomita with $30 Million Verdict in Patent Litigation

On March 13, 2013, a jury awarded a $30.2 million dollar verdict to Tomita Technologies International Inc. in its patent infringement with the Nintendo Co. Ltd. Tomita’s suit accused Nintendo of infringing on its “Stereoscopic imaging picking up and display system based upon optical axes cross-point information” patent (which displays 3-D images viewable without special glasses) by using the technology in Nintendo’s 3DS hand-held video game system. .

Seijiro Tomita (the founder of Tomita Technologies) spent 30 years working at Sony as an engineer/inventor, and …