Suffern, N.Y., November 5, 2009 − General Patent Corporation (GPC), a leading intellectual property licensing and enforcement firm, announced today that it secured a settlement and agreement from Trump University, based in New York City, regarding the “Negotiate to Win” service mark owned by Common Ground Seminars, Inc.
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.