Tabberone is pronounced tab ber won not tay ber own

Tabbers Temptations     www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/ Home | Site Index | Disclaimer | Email Me! "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" Edmund Burke

This information is taken directly from the court opinion. It is not taken out of context nor is it altered.

From Allison v Vintage Sports, 136 F.3d 1443 (11 Cir. 1998) The district court concluded that the first-sale doctrine precludes appellants from holding Vintage liable in tort. The first-sale doctrine provides that once the holder of an intellectual property right "consents to the sale of particular copies ... of his work, he may not thereafter exercise the distribution right with respect to such copies...." M. Nimmer and D. Nimmer, Nimmer on Copyright § 8.12[B] (1997). Any other rule would extend the monopoly created by the intellectual property right so far as to permit control by the right-holder over the disposition of lawfully obtained tangible personal property. Therefore, "the policy favoring [an intellectual property right monopoly] ... gives way to the policy opposing restraints of trade and restraints on alienation." Id. at § 8.12[A]. The first-sale doctrine limits the three principal forms of intellectual property rights: (1) copyright, see 17 U.S.C. § 109(a) ("[T]he owner of a particular copy or phonorecord lawfully made under this title, or any person authorized by such owner, is entitled, without the authority of the copyright owner, to sell or otherwise dispose of the possession of that copy or phonorecord."); (2) patent, see Intel Corp. v. ULSI Sys. Tech., Inc., 995 F.2d 1566, 1568 (Fed.Cir.1993) ("The law is well settled that an authorized sale of a patented product places that product beyond the reach of the patent. The patent owner's rights with respect to the product end with its sale, and a purchaser of such a product may use or resell the product free of the patent.") (internal cites omitted); and (3) trademark, see NEC Electronics v. CAL Circuit ABCO, 810 F.2d 1506, 1509 (9th Cir.1987) ("Once a trademark owner sells his product, the buyer ordinarily may resell the product under the original mark without incurring any trademark liability.") (citing Prestonettes, Inc. v. Coty, 264 U.S. 359, 368-69, 44 S.Ct. 350, 351-52, 68 L.Ed. 731 (1924)).