After a company goes out of business it's natural they would let their trademarks lapse. So then if the trademark has lapsed then lots of people could theoretically use it for their projects, right?
It doesn't make sense that someone else could take ownership of it ... unless it was sold to them by the owner. Master acquired rights to the Akro name after Akro closed. So if Master passed the rights on to someone else and Rhyne & Son received it that way, then that sounds odd but okay.
But if this is a case of someone scooping up expired trademarks ... that seems wrong somehow. Like trying to copyright something which is already in the public domain.
Any lawyers here who could set me straight on this?