huh. Plaintiff owns an incontestable registration for RUFFLEBUTTS for children’s apparel. It spots a suspicious order by defendant, who (allegedly) indicates that it is seeking to copy plaintiff’s business (see Complaint paras 21 to 28). Plaintiff’s RUFFLEBUTT product illustrated on top, defendant’s RUFFLE BUNS below it. I don’t know what the market looks like, but
Plaintiff claims trade dress in its traction hoist (used for things like moving window washing platforms). The trade dress claim was in:
1) a cube-shaped gear box with horizontal fins;
2) a cylindrical motor mounted in an off-set position on the cube and partially overhanging the edge of the cube:
3) the cylindrical motor including
There were two primary arguments against single color marks – the first was ‘color depletion theory’ and the other was ‘shade confusion theory: The gist of the color depletion theory was that there were only so many colors so taking even one out of circulation disadvantaged competitors. The shade confusion theory went to the
Manufacturer of Ped Egg, as seen on TV, sues alleged counterfeiter for trade dress.
Complaint Ped Egg Trade Dress(function() { var scribd = document.createElement(“script”); scribd.type = “text/javascript”; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = “http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js”; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();
American Express provides the Centurion credit card, known as the Black Card. The annual fee is reportedly $2500. Defendant offers a black card (and claims it filed a patent for its ‘carbon and carbon-based’ card).
Complaint Black Card
Plaintiff (represented by friend of the blog John Welch) sues New Balance alleging infringement in trade dress of lacrosse helmet.
Complaint Sports Helmet
Laughing in the face of death, Heart Attack Grill sues Heart Stoppers (both are burger restaurant) for infringing use of ‘high caloric food, medically themed’ burger. Both places offer quadruple burgers, have wait-staff wearing nurses uniforms, etc. Both places allow people over 350 to eat free. Heart Attack Grill seems to have only one location
Design Within Reach, a retailer of designer furniture, used to promote itself as ‘The source for licensed classics,’ selling modern classics such as the Barcelona Chair and Eames Chair. This earned it a certain following but also a non-following who referred to it as ‘Design Out Of Reach.” This FastCompany article details its current finanical
Aurora, seller of YOOHOO AND FRIENDS plush dolls sues Ty, maker of BEANIE BOOS plush dolls for copyright and trade dress infringement, regardnig dolls that have crossed eyes, big pupils and colored irises.
The photograph of the Beanie Boos was taken by Sondra Schlossberg.
Memo Yoohoo v Beanie Boo Copyright Trade Dress
