General Patent Corporation Secures Settlement and Agreement from Trump University over Service Mark Infringement

Common Ground Seminars owns the service mark "Negotiate to Win" (Service Mark No. 2,442,732), and its flagship product is its Negotiate to Win workshop. Trump University was offering an on-line course that improperly used the mark in the course's title. General Patent Corporation agreed to represent Common Ground Seminars in this service mark infringement dispute, and GPC was able to negotiate a two-part agreement for Common Ground Seminars. First, Trump University agreed to pay Common Ground Seminars half of its profits on all of the on-line courses it had sold that used Common Ground Seminar's service mark; second, Trump University agreed to cease its use of Common Ground Seminar's "Negotiate to Win" service mark.

"General Patent did an outstanding job of protecting our service mark and hard-earned goodwill against Trump University," observed Jim Thomas, President of Common Ground Seminars, developer of the Negotiate to Win workshop, and author of "Negotiate to Win" (Harper Collins 2005).

"We were pleased to be able to negotiate a settlement and agreement with Trump University on amicable terms," says Paul Lerner, Senior Vice President and General Counsel for General Patent Corporation.

About Common Ground Seminars

Common Ground Seminars, Inc., based in McLean, Va., owns Service Mark No. 2,442,732 "Negotiate to Win." Common Ground Seminars delivers hundreds of training programs a year worldwide in addition to their Negotiate to Win workshop. Common Ground specializes in negotiation, conflict resolution and human resource development, and the company offers seminars, workshops, speakers, consulting, coaching, arbitration and mediation services, training program design and development, publishing, multimedia production, research studies, workforce surveys and software design. Their website is www.commongroundseminars.com.

About General Patent Corporation

General Patent Corporation, headquartered in Suffern, N.Y., is a leading intellectual property (IP) boutique focusing on IP licensing and enforcement. GPC represents IP owners in IP enforcement and assertive licensing matters, and assists IP owners with patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret infringement claims and IP infringement litigation on a contingency basis. General Patent also provides IP advisory services such as IP strategy, IP valuation, IP audit and IP management. General Patent is the oldest intellectual property licensing and enforcement firm in the U.S. For information about trademark licensing and enforcement, visit www.trademarksr.us. General Patent's corporate website is www.generalpatent.com.

General Patent Corporation
Alec Schibanoff, 845-368-4000 Ext. 116 or 848-248-2012 (Cell)
aschibanoff@generalpatent.com