Zesty Paws v. Nutramax was an appeal in the Second Circuit from the Southern District of New York that dealt with false advertising claims under the Lanham Act. Zesty Paws and Nutramax sell competing products in the veterinary supplement industry. After Zesty Paws advertised itself as the number one pet supplement brand in the United…
Pleasrdao v. Shkreli is a case in the Eastern District of New York that pits some of hip hop’s most renowned artists against someone already convicted of securities fraud. Defendant Martin Shkreli’s name might sound familiar because of some white collar crimes for which he was incarcerated in the 2010s, but this case stems from…
Bartz et al. v. Anthropic PBC is an ongoing case in the Northern District of California that is of interest because it contains a small win for creators, at least in the context of this case. In another Anthropic case from the same district, a different judge dealt a more definitive blow to plaintiffs suing…
Alcon Entertainment, LLC v. Tesla, Inc., et al. is a case from the Central District of California involving fast cars, motion pictures, copyright infringement, and a healthy dose of politics. Elon Musk found himself and his company, Tesla, in the crosshairs of Alcon Media (“Alcon”), which produced the remake of the classic post-apocalyptic film Blade…
Martineau v. Bungie is a case from the Eastern District of Louisiana that pits a blogging David against a gaming Goliath that allegedly had to create a plot for one of its video games in a hurry. Matthew Kelsey Martineau filed a complaint against Bungie Inc. for infringement within the extremely popular, multiplayer game Destiny…
I had always wondered how the TTAB could know whether someone had a sufficient intent, and that question was answered in a case called Tequila Cuadra S. de RL de CV v. Manufacturera de Botas Cuadra, S.A. de C.V. The presumption that the applicant intended to use the trademark CUADRA was toppled by another company…
TOP Tobacco v. Star Importers and Wholesalers was a case that considered the relationship between statutory damages and actual damages. Defendants appealed to the Eleventh Circuit to review the amount of statutory damages that the jury awarded in the Northern District of Georgia. TOP Tobacco (“TOP”) is the manufacturer of TOP and JOB popular brands…
This is the story of cannabis fertilizer producer infringing on the trademark of the senior user. In Athena Incorporated v. Advanced Nutrients, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington (Seattle), Athena sought a preliminary injunction against trademark infringement by Advanced Nutrients for using not just the name, but the logo…
Concord Music Group et al. v. Anthropic PBC was a case in the Northern District of California involving another artificial intelligence company defending itself against hypothetical infringement. Anthropic is a technology company whose main product is an artificial intelligence called Claude. Anthropic trains Claude by creating a training corpus, which consists of large amounts of…
When we first met the client, the former attorney for Backyard Brine (“BB”) had sent a demand letter to Backyard Food Company (“BFC”), saying that BFC’s name was confusingly similar to their own, especially in connection with pickle products. BB sent the demand letter the day after learning about BFC’s using its trademark in connection…