Michael Jackson - Neverland Patent Bid Dropped

MICHAEL JACKSON's family finally has something to cheer about - an application to trademark the name "Neverland" has been dropped.

The King of Pop's father Joe hit out on Thursday (10Sep09) after it emerged executives at private equity firm Colony Capital had filed paperwork with the U.S. Patent Office.

They were looking to acquire the rights to four names - Neverland, Neverland Ranch, Neverland Valley and Neverland Valley Ranch - for use in conjunction with the sprawling estate.

Jackson was furious the family was not consulted on the application - but now it has emerged the request was dropped earlier this week (beg07Sep09), according to TMZ.com.