Assignment Without Goodwill Law and Legal Definition
Assignment or transfer of a trademark must occur in conjunction with the transfer of goodwill represented by that mark. An assignment without transfer of goodwill is invalid. When an assignment occurs without goodwill, the trademark is in effect abandoned. It is the assignee's rights in the mark that are abandoned, but sometimes it is the assignor that abandons its rights. The result of such abandonment on the assignee is that the assignee cannot benefit from the early first use date of the assignor. The assignee should go by the assignee's date of first use in order to establish priority.
