Cloobeck v. Antonio R. Villaraigosa, et al. was an attempt to apply the Lanham Act in a political setting rather than a commercial one. Stephen Cloobeck and Antonio Villaraigosa were both running for governor in California (Cloobeck has since dropped out) before Cloobeck sued Villaraigosa for trademark infringement and unfair competition under the Lanham Act.…
In Neil Zlozower v. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc., the storied Hall of Fame brought a motion for judgment on the pleadings in the Northern District of Ohio (that is, their home turf) after the plaintiff brought a claim for copyright infringement. The Hall of Fame countered with a motion…
Wildbird Llc. v. Wildride B. V. was an action in the Southern District of New York concerning two sets of trademarks (word marks and logos) that start with the same word: Wild. Both companies make wearable carriers for children; the plaintiff makes cinchable, cloth baby carriers while the defendant makes carriers for toddlers that have…
Sonate Corporation d/b/a Vegedelphia Foods v. Beyond Meat is a tale of two trademarks separated by the same words. Vegedelphia registered the trademark WHERE GREAT TASTE IS PLANT-BASED in 2015. Its business is selling meat-substitute products to restaurants and distributors. The mark was used on its wholesale packaging, website, and promotional merchandise. After a supply…
In Re: OpenAI, Inc. Copyright Infringement Litigation is another proposed class action by authors involving alleged infringement by large language models (LLMs). Here, the class would represent authors and copyright holders of fiction and non-fiction books who assert claims on their own and on behalf of the proposed class. Plaintiffs alleged OpenAI infringed their copyrights…
Richardson v. Kharbouch was a case we wrote about in February of 2024 that hinged on the difference between copyright in a composition and copyright in a sound recording. The case involved an ambitious, teen hip-hop artist known as Hotwire the Producer (Eddie Richardson), who crafted a unique beat that he later identified in the…
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…
DejaVuAI v. Kapustin is a case from the Western District of Washington that began as a claim of breach of fiduciary duty and became a case about the misappropriation of trade secrets under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA). At issue here was a motion to convert a temporary restraining order against the defendant into…
In Re Google Generative AI Copyright Litigation addresses a class action of authors and visual artists against Google for direct copyright infringement, and its parent company, Alphabet, for vicarious infringement. This particular case stands out because the plaintiffs claim that copyright infringement occurred when the rightsholders’ works were copied into generative AI models, not that…