[E-trademarks] Proper applicant when client is under Model A fiscal sponsorship

[Jessica R. Friedman]

  *   I represent a group that produces podcasts under a Model A fiscal sponsorship and wants to register its name. A fiscal sponsor is a nonprofit organization that provides fiduciary oversight, financial management, and other administrative services to charitable start-up operations.


  *   Under Model A, the group being sponsored becomes part of the sponsor company; it doesn’t form its own corporate entity. So, the two people who work for my client’s group receive salaries on a W-2 from the sponsor entity, and the sponsor has to sign all contracts that the group wants to enter into. But the sponsor entity has no input into or right of approval over the podcast content or any other aspect of the actual podcast services.


  *   Who is the proper trademark applicant: the sponsor entity or the individual members of the group? It seems to me that as long as the members of the group are employees of the sponsor, the sponsor entity has to be the trademark applicant, but since the sponsor itself has nothing to do with the quality of the podcasts, this just seems wrong.


  *   Has anyone had experience with this situation, or does anyone else have any thoughts?


Jessica R. Friedman
Attorney at Law
300 East 59 Street, Ste. 2406
New York, NY 10022
Phone: 212-220-0900
Cell: 917-647-1884
E-mail: jrfriedman at litproplaw.com<mailto:jrfriedman at litproplaw.com>
URL: www.literarypropertylaw.com<http://www.literarypropertylaw.com>

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