As reported earlier on Class46, Fujitsu owned the rights in an US trade mark application iPAD covering "HAND-
HELD COMPUTING DEVICE FOR WIRELESS NETWORKING IN A RETAIL ENVIRONMENT" with first use claimed in 2002.
On 17 March 2010, Fujitsu assigned its title in the iPAD application to Apple, presumably for (a lot of) money - neither party commented on the transaction.
The interesting question, legally speaking, is: why is this not an invalid assignment in gross? Here is the definition of assignment in gross from INTA's website:
A mark is a symbol of the mark owner's goodwill in the goods or services associated with the mark. The rule, both under the common law and the Lanham Act, is that a mark cannot be assigned apart from the goodwill in the mark. The term “assignment in gross” is often used to describe a purported assignment of a mark without the associated goodwill. An “assignment in gross” is invalid, and the assignee acquires no rights by such a purported assignment. The rule prohibiting “assignments in gross” is intended to protect the public from the deception that might arise if the assigned mark becomes associated with goods or services of a different nature or quality than was previously the case.
It seems hard to believe that Apple acquired Fujitu's goodwill in the mark, or subjects itself to any kind of quality control by Fujitsu.
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