Monthly Archives: October 2016

Disparaging an unauthorized reseller could violate the Lanham Act

Dentsply Int’l Inc. v. Dental Brands for Less LLC, No. 15 Civ. 8775, 2016 WL 6310777 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 27, 2016) Dentsply sued Dental Brands over Dental Brands’ resale of Dentsply’s dental products without Dentsply’s authorization. Dental Brands buys Dentsply’s products … Continue reading

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Study’s co-author disclaiming its use creates material issue on falsity

Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Braintree Laboratories, Inc., 2016 WL 6275156, No. 13-12553 (D. Mass. Oct. 25, 2016) Previous opinion discussed here. The parties compete in the market for products used for bowel preparation before colonoscopies. Ferring alleged false advertising in … Continue reading

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Direct, secondary liability under Lanham Act for statements targeted at foreign markets

Operation Technology, Inc. v. Cyme International T & D Inc., No. SACV 14-00999,  2016 WL 6246806 (C.D. Cal. Mar. 31, 2016) Plaintiff (ETAP) alleged that defendants (CYME, IPET-CO, and Amir Aslani) violated the Lanham Act via pseudononymous, disparaging remarks made … Continue reading

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Inapplicable studies and lost market share equal literal falsity and irreparable harm

OrthoAccel Technologies, Inc. v. Propel Orthodontics, LLC, No. 4:16-CV-350, 2016 WL 6248711 (E.D. Tex. Oct. 26, 2016) OrthoAccel is a medical device company that makes dental appliances, including the AcceleDent, a hands-free dental device that uses gentle vibrations to accelerate … Continue reading

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Republication of online articles was commercial speech and not protected by CDA

Western Sugar Coop. v. Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., 2015 WL 12683192, No. CV 11-3473 (C.D. Cal. Aug. 21, 2015) More belated blogging.  The sugar industry and the corn refining industry accused each other of falsely advertising  high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).  Plaintiffs were … Continue reading

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Third party lacked standing to challenge allegedly misleading use of abandoned mark

578539 B.C., Ltd. v. Kortz, 2014 WL 12572679, No. CV 14-04375 (C.D. Cal. Oct. 16, 2014) Westlaw is doing something to surface all sorts of old cases, but this one covers an issue about abandoned marks that often comes up … Continue reading

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Press release constituted commercial advertising or promotion

Engineered Arresting Sys. Corp. v. Runway Safe LLC, No. 1:15-CV-546, 2016 WL 6087906 (W.D. Tex. Sept. 19, 2016) Engineered materials arrestor systems (EMAS) are installed at the end of airport runways in order to safely stop an aircraft that fails … Continue reading

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At the USPTO Trademark Expo

Well, here I am at the National Trademark Expo Here is a giant registration symbol character costume Musical pairing, which seems really really functional to be at a TM expo, but emphasizes its patents, copyrights, and word marks Metrorail Map … Continue reading

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A transformative purpose fair use finding

Wong v. Village Green Owners Association, No. CV 14-03803, 2015 WL 12672092 (C.D. Cal. Mar. 20, 2015) This transformative fair use case just showed up in my Westclip search.  Wong, who owned a unit in Village Green, prepared a National … Continue reading

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Package size can be false advertising

In Re: Mccormick & Company, Inc., Pepper Products Marketing & Sales Practices Litigation, 2016 WL 6078250, No. 15-cv-2188 (D.D.C. Oct. 17, 2016) Watkins, which produces black pepper, alleges that its largest competitor, defendant McCormick (which has 70% of domestic black … Continue reading

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