Top 10 Trademark Cases for the Month of September 2010

1. UBID, Inc. v. GoDaddy Group, Inc., No. 09-3927, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 20073, May 19, 2010, Argued, September 29, 2010, Decided

OVERVIEW:  A domain name registration site was subject to jurisdiction in Illinois under its long-arm statute, 735 Ill. Comp. Stat. 5/2-209(c), because the site had continuously and deliberately exploited the Illinois market for domain name registration, and due to these extensive activities, it was not unfair to require it to defend a lawsuit in Illinois.

CORE TERMS:  domain, customer, personal jurisdiction, forum state, advertising, resident, website, magazine, parked, infringing ...

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2. Sadhu Singh Hamdard Trust v. Ajit Newspaper Adver., 09-4965-cv, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 20022, September 28, 2010, Decided,  PLEASE REFER TO FEDERAL RULES OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE RULE 32.1 GOVERNING THE CITATION TO UNPUBLISHED OPINIONS.

CORE TERMS:  summary judgment, leave to amend, trademark, abuse of discretion, marketing, waived, amend

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3. SEC v. Cuban, No. 09-10996, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 19563, September 21, 2010, Filed

OVERVIEW:  Dismissal of the SEC's insider trading action against defendant was vacated; it was plausible that all sides understood there was to be no trading before the private investment of public equity offering, and the fact that both defendant and the CEO expressed the belief that defendant could not trade reinforced the plausibility of that reading.

CORE TERMS:  offering, trading, com, insider, confidential information, shareholders, confidential, confidence, abstain, tippee ...

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4. Airs Fragrance Prods. v. Clover Gifts, Inc., No. 08-17385, No. 08-17386, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 19389, April 12, 2010, Argued and Submitted, San Francisco, California, September 17, 2010, Filed,  PLEASE REFER TO FEDERAL RULES OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE RULE 32.1 GOVERNING THE CITATION TO UNPUBLISHED OPINIONS.

CORE TERMS:  trademark, ownership, summary judgment, injunction, undisputed, fragrance, de novo, abuse of discretion, exclusive ownership, trade secrets ...

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5. Aurora Dairy Corp. Organic Milk Mktg. & Sales Practices Litig. v. Aurora Organic Dairy, No. 09-2762, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 19254, February 9, 2010, Submitted, September 15, 2010, Filed

OVERVIEW:  The dismissal of claims challenging a dairy's organic certification and the diary's and the retailers' use of various terms indicating organic was affirmed because the were preempted by the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 (OFPA), 7 U.S.C.S. § 6501 et seq. However, the dismissal of all remaining claims was reversed.

CORE TERMS:  organic, certification, preemption, retailer, milk, certifying, state law claims, preempted, brand, consumer ...

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6. Georgia-Pacific Consumer Prods. LP v. Myers Supply, Inc., No. 09-2980, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 19246, June 17, 2010, Submitted, September 15, 2010, Filed

OVERVIEW:  A judgment for a corporation on an LP's claim for contributory trademark infringement under the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C.S. § 1125(a)(1)(A), was affirmed, as there was no actual confusion by bathroom consumers when the corporation sold another brand of paper towels knowing that they would be placed in the LP's trademarked paper-towel dispensers.

CORE TERMS:  towel, dispenser, sublease, customer, end-user, consumer, brand, summary judgment, trademark, tortious interference ...

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7. Romero v. Buhimschi, No. 09-1195, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT,  10a0606n.06;, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 19219; 2010 FED App. 0606N (6th Cir.), September 13, 2010, Filed,  NOT RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION. SIXTH CIRCUIT RULE 28 LIMITS CITATION TO SPECIFIC SITUATIONS. PLEASE SEE RULE 28 BEFORE CITING IN A PROCEEDING IN A COURT IN THE SIXTH CIRCUIT. IF CITED, A COPY MUST BE SERVED ON OTHER PARTIES AND THE COURT. THIS NOTICE IS TO BE PROMINENTLY DISPLAYED IF THIS DECISION IS REPRODUCED.

OVERVIEW:  To extent physician's claim relied on § 43(a)(1)(A) of Lanham Act's "origin of goods" prong, claim fell within scope of Dastar, which made clear that origin did not refer to the person originating the idea and could not be read to apply to communicative products. Claim failed in as much as it alleged co-author failed to attribute certain work him.

CORE TERMS:  authorship, Lanham Act, defamation claim, preexisting duty, summary judgment, defamation, consented, absolutely privileged, advertising, co-author ...

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8. In re Specht, No. 10-2823, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 18740, August 23, 2010, Submitted, September 8, 2010, Decided

OVERVIEW:  Although a judge should have transferred and not acted upon a motion to add a defendant (on whose board of directors his wife was a member) due to an appearance of impropriety under 28 U.S.C.S. § 455(a), there was no point in granting a writ of mandamus to direct transfer because granting the motion would have been an abuse of discretion.

CORE TERMS:  recusal, wireless, financial interest, disqualify, assigned, operating system, provider, writ of mandamus, appearance, discovery ...

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9. Green Edge Enters., LLC v. Rubber Mulch etc., LLC, 2009-1455, -1479, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FEDERAL CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 18680, September 7, 2010, Decided

OVERVIEW:  Summary judgment of invalidity for failure to meet the best mode requirement, under 35 U.S.C.S. § 112, para. 1, was reversed where the patentee's use of an invalid name for a colorant could have been specific enough to identify the colorant; evidence of sales damages under 15 U.S.C.S. § 1125(a) also should have gone to the jury.

CORE TERMS:  rubber, mulch, summary judgment, invalidity, trademark, colorant, counterclaim, inventor, infringement, declaratory judgment ...

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10. Superior Seafoods, Inc. v. Tyson Foods, Inc., No. 09-2031, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 18454, February 9, 2010, Submitted, September 3, 2010, Filed

OVERVIEW:  Court properly denied plaintiff's belated request for extraordinary relief from a consent judgment pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(d) because there were multiple foregone opportunities to raise his arguments earlier, court expressly held that it had not been defrauded, and plaintiff failed to explain how allegations rose to level of fraud on court.

CORE TERMS:  consent judgment, seafood, declaratory judgment, infringement, trademark, equitable action, right to use, negotiation, negotiated, purchase agreement ...

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