Naked Juice v. Naked Whey is a trademark fight in the Northern District of Illinois that pits a smoothie giant against a protein-powder company that decided to get bubbly. Naked Juice has sold its NAKED-branded smoothies and juices since 1984, building a brand around “healthy” and “energy”-focused marketing. Naked Whey, doing business as Naked Nutrition,…
In Artist Revenue Advocates v. West, et al., a jury in the C.D. California had ruled against Kanye West (a/k/a Ye), and Ye demanded the judge who had presided over the trial to wipe out the verdict. Not surprisingly, the judge declined to second-guess the jury (or herself). In 2018, four musicians made a minute-long…
Reddit, Inc. v. SerpApi LLC is a case out of the Southern District of New York. Reddit sued to stop defendants from scraping, in only two weeks, more than 1.8 billion search-results of Reddit content. It argued that under the Digital Millinum Copyright Act (DMCA), Reddit could protect publicly visible search results. Defendant SerpApi’s scraping…
Impossible LLC v. Impossible Foods was a case in the Northern District of California in which Impossible LLC sued Impossible Foods for trademark infringement. Plaintiff is a lifestyle brand that formed around an inspirational book about overcoming impossible things written by Joel Runyon. Runyon registered the IMPOSSIBLE trademark in 2012 in connection with apparel, fitness,…
In Hayden v. Koons, the Second Circuit affirmed a decision from the Southern District of New York that time-barred a plaintiff from bringing a suit some 30 years after the infringement occurred. Michael Hayden is an American artist who, while living and working in Rome for 10 years, learned of an adult entertainment performer named…