Celebrity Trademarks: KB Toys
KB Toys, longtime vendor of children's toys, regrettably has filed for bankruptcy and is currently liquidating its assets in order to satisfy its creditors. Among the items up for bid were KB Toys trademark, logos, and domain name as the retailer is shutting down all of its approximately 460 stores.
For a business that began in the 1920s, they have only been using the name, "KB Toys" since 1996, according to their trademark registration, and "Kay-Bee Toys" since 1997, according to another trademark registration.
Those registrations cite a handful of other prior registrations. A trademark is any word, name, symbol, device, or any combination thereof used to identify and distinguish goods. One may last forever, but can expire due to either non-use or loss of distinctiveness. Ownership can arise due to either public use or registration, but registration affords many more advantages when it comes to deterring infringement.
Trademarks are assets. As such, these assets may be transferred or sold by executing an assignment. A retail operator called CE Stores secured the rights to KB Toys' intellectual property for $2.1 million dollars and may capitalize on the good will that KB Toys built up since its inception in 1922.
It's a shame that KB Toys has been forced into a situation where it has to part with the good will of its own intellectual property, isn't it?
