Court Opinion

ID: 9454880
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:02:45.872965+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:21.689107
License: Public Domain

BLACKMUN, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I concur, but on the ground that Hy-Cross Hatchery, Inc. v. Osborne, 303 F.2d 947, 49 CCPA 1163 (1962), the case relied upon by the district court here, is not, or should not be helpful authority for Grapette. Hy-Cross is a peculiar case factually in that, among other asspects, live baby chicks were the product of both assignor and assignee. The court did place some reliance on what it seemed to regard as a genuine transfer of goodwill, 303 F.2d at 950, and, accordingly, saw little legal significance in the absence of an assignment of tangible chicks themselves. See J. C. Hall Co. v. Hallmark Cards, Inc., 340 F.2d 960, 963, 52 CCPA 981 (1965), where the same court apparently relates the significance of Hy-Cross to the absence of a transfer of tangible assets.
But if, as Grapette urges, the HyCross holding has greater import than its peculiar facts suggest for me, then I would regard it as aberrational to settled authority. I prefer to stay with the usual rule, long established I thought, that a trademark may not validly be assigned in gross. And product difference is only an aspect of this traditional rule. A naked assignment is all that Fox and Grapette attempted and effected. It is not enough.