In November 2013, GoldieBlox was charged with copyright infringement. He used the Beastie Boys song “Girls” in one of his ads promoting new toys for girls without permission. The company’s response to the filing of a lawsuit against the band was not well received and was perhaps a bit premature.
Several different brokerage business models have emerged for the intellectual property (IP) market over the past five to ten years. This notice describes the most popular: non-practicing entities (or patent trolls), defensive patent aggregators, online IP platforms, live IP auctions, and IP exchanges.
World-famous toy manufacturer The LEGO Group (LEGO) is assembling an internal management team to produce a strategic report on LEGO’s various product lines and business activities. Lego threats have emerged in the toy industry in recent years. The Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of Marvel Entertainment had a significant impact on valuable toy licensing deals. LEGO …
Nucleon is a small biotech company whose first potential product is close to clinical testing. However, before Nucleon can begin clinical trials, management must decide how and where to manufacture the product. Three options are being considered: 1) build our own pilot plant, 2) outsource manufacturing, 3) license development, manufacturing and marketing rights to a …
Confidential instructions for V.P. of Sales in TEP for product # PON453.
Varsity Brands, the leading manufacturer of cheerleading uniforms in the United States, has copyrights to certain stripe, chevron, color block and line designs on cheerleading uniforms. Star Athletica, a newcomer to the field, wore these designs on his own uniforms and was immediately sued by Varsity for copyright infringement. Star responded that cheerleading uniforms were …
Pokémon, the slang name for a collection of 150 fantastic animal-inspired creatures with organic powers and the ability to evolve, are the stars of video games, trading card games, and television cartoons. Conceived in Japan in 1996, Pokémon quickly became the nation’s favorite toy phenomenon and caught the attention of Nintendo of America, which in …
China’s leading beverage company Hangzhou Wahaha Group (Wahaha) and French beverage giant Groupe Danone (Danone) formed a joint strategic partnership (JV) in 1996. In the next decade, Wahaha became the beverage company largest in China and the fifth largest in the world with annual sales of 11.1 billion RMB (1.4 billion US dollars). In 2006, …
The management team at Marvel Enterprises, known for its universe of superhero characters that includes SpiderMan, Hulk and XMen, needs to rethink their marketing strategy. In June 2004, just six years after the company’s bankruptcy, Marvel had a market value of more than $ 2 billion. Originally known as a comic book publisher, the company …
A polymer chemist filed a lawsuit against a national research institute for failing to obtain a patent on his behalf while he was a postdoctoral fellow. The pharmacist must now decide whether he will accept a pre-trial cash settlement of less than one-sixth of his attorney’s claim. In this case, the following questions are posed, …