Category Archives: Southern District of Indiana

BioSweep vs. BioClean…are you confused?

01 Tuesday May 2018

Posted by in Indiana, Intellectual Property, Litigation, Southern District of Indiana, Trademark

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The Defendants in this lawsuit are accused of violating the non-compete provisions of a terminated Franchise Agreement, as well as operating the competing business with a confusingly similar trademark, BioClean vs. the Plaintiff’s registered BioSweep trademark.

The Defendants allegedly also still claim to use Plaintiff’s “BioSweep System” equipment on their website, creating a false impression of a relationship with Plaintiff, and reference their competing company as “BioSweep of the Gulf Coast” in at least one instance.

Stay tuned for updates.

Phocatox Technologies, LLC v. Wiersig et al.

Court Case Number: 1:18-cv-01298-WTL-DML
File Date: Friday, April 27, 2018
Plaintiff: Phocatox Technologies, LLC
Plaintiff Counsel: Bryan S. Redding, Britton A. Jared of Redding Law, LLC
Defendants: Jerry D. Wiersig, Todd M. Hoffman, BioClean Remediation, LLC (AL), and BioClean Remediation, LLC (OK)
Cause: Federal Trademark Infringement, Common Law Trademark Infringement, Contributory Trademark Infringement, Breach of Franchise Agreement, Conspiracy, Federal Unfair Competition, State Unfair Competition
Court: Southern District of Indiana
Judge: William T. Lawrence
Referred To: Debra McVicker Lynch

Complaint:

WORLD OF LEGGINGS vs. LEGGINGS WORLD…are you confused?

17 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by in Indiana, Intellectual Property, Litigation, Southern District of Indiana, Trademark

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The Plaintiff in this trademark lawsuit, California-based Muscle Flex, Inc., operates a hosiery website, worldofleggings.com, which boasts “5.5 million visitors, 27 million views, and millions of dollars in sales across the United States.”

The Defendants operate several hosiery stores called “Leggings World” inside Simon Property Group (“Simon”) properties across the Midwest and Northeast. Simon is included as a defendant in the lawsuit.

When Muscle Flex complained of the infringement to Simon, Simon responded by removing instances of “Leggings World” from its website and digital directories inside its malls, and sending cease-and-desist letters to tenants operating under the “Leggings World” name in its properties.

However, this didn’t satisfy Muscle Flex, which also wants to receive some money for damages, leading to some slight lawyer shade:

Simon has seemingly thrown in the towel on Leggings World, removing it from all Simon online directories (really, go try to find a store online), but we’ll see whether Leggings World decides to challenge Muscle Flex and continue operating the physical stores. Stay tuned for updates.

Muscle Flex, Inc. v. Simon Property Group, L.P. et al.

Court Case Number: 1:18-cv-1140
File Date: Friday, April 13, 2018
Plaintiff: Muscle Flex, Inc.
Plaintiff Counsel: Christopher A. Brown of Woodard, Emhardt, Moriarty, McNett & Henry LLP, Connor Lynch of Lynch LLP (pro hac vice)
Defendants: Simon Property Group, L.P., Simon Property Group, Inc., Matt Murat Dagli, New Purple LLC
Cause: Trademark Infringement, Unfair Competition, False Designation of Origin, Trademark Dilution, Common Law Trademark Infringement, Unjust Enrichment
Court: Southern District of Indiana
Judge: Tanya Walton Pratt
Referred To: Tim A. Baker

Complaint:

Oakley sues So. Indiana Gas Stations over Counterfeit Eyewear

26 Monday Feb 2018

Posted by in Indiana, Intellectual Property, Litigation, Southern District of Indiana, Trademark

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The Defendants in this lawsuit, the owners of gas stations located in Batesville, Osgood, and New Point, Indiana, are accused of selling counterfeit Oakley and Ray-Ban sunglasses. The counterfeit products were observed for sale in the stores by Plaintiff’s representatives and are believed to originate from a common source, to be determined.

Stay tuned for updates.

Luxottica Group et al. v. Avni Petroleum, Inc. et al.

Court Case Number: 1:18-cv-0537-WTL-MJD
File Date: Friday, February 23, 2018
Plaintiff: Luxottica Group S.p.A., Oakley Inc.
Plaintiff Counsel: Brent H. Blakely, Jessica C. Covington of Blakely Law Group
Defendant: Avni Petroleum, Inc., Delaware BP, Pari, Inc. dba Batesville Food Mart, Rani Petroleum, Inc. dba Batesville Shell, SAI Petroleum Inc. dba New Point Food Mart, Does 1-10
Cause: Federal Trademark Infringement, False Designation of Origin and False Advertising, Common Law Trademark Infringement, Common Law Unfair Competition, Unjust Enrichment
Court: Southern District of Indiana
Judge: William T. Lawrence
Referred To: Mark J. Dinsmore

Complaint: 

Shoe retailer Shoe Carnival sues two counterfeit websites

24 Friday Nov 2017

Posted by in Litigation, Southern District of Indiana, Trademark

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Shoe retailer Shoe Carnival brings this lawsuit against the owners of two domains, daretodreamwebdesign.com and afordrunning.com, which appear to be counterfeit Shoe Carnival websites.

I used to love shopping at Shoe Carnival. I remember the frequent sale announcements over the intercom and the booth for catching blowing cash.

SCLC, Inc. v. Kettering et al

Court Case Number: 3:17-cv-00193-RLY-MPB
File Date: November 22, 2017
Plaintiff: SCLC, Inc.
Plaintiff Counsel: Keith E. Rounder, Gary K. Price of Terrell, Baugh, Salmon & Born, LLP
Defendant: Marie Kettering, Lanny Tyndall
Cause: Trade Dress Infringement, Unfair Competition, Trademark Infringement, Common Law Trademark Infringement, Common Law Unfair Competition
Court: Southern District of Indiana
Judge: Richard L. Young
Referred To: Matthew P. Brookman

Complaint: 

Update 11/30/2017: 

Shoe Carnival has requested a Temporary Restraining Order for the purpose of ordering search engines to remove the offending websites.

Terre Haute Endocrinology Center sues competing medical center for not having an Endocrinologist in its “Endocrinology Department”

24 Thursday Aug 2017

Posted by in Indiana, Intellectual Property, Litigation, Southern District of Indiana

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The Plaintiffs in this lawsuit are an endocrinologist and his medical center in Terre Haute, Indiana, providing endocrinology care and services.

The Defendant is a competing medical center in Terre Haute. Allegedly, the Defendant lost its last board-certified endocrinology physician in 2014 but continues to advertise that it has an “Endocrinology Department.”

Per the Complaint (below):

“due to the use of ‘endocrinology’ in its advertising and representations to the public, patients and potential patients are led to believe that there is a physician practicing at Defendant’s facility that is board-certified in the specialty of endocrinology.”

To Plaintiff, which is a competing medical center in the area that does employ a board-certified endocrinologist, this constitutes false advertising and unfair competition.

The case was originally filed in Vigo Superior Court but removed to the Southern District of Indiana.

Pittman et al. v. Union Medical Group LLC

Court Case Number:2:17-cv-00393-JMS-MPB
File Date: Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Plaintiff: Isaiah Pittman IV, MD, HPW Center For Diabetes, LLC
Plaintiff Counsel: Paul J. Jungers of Wagner, Crawford, Gambill and Jungers
Defendant: Union Medical Group LLC
Cause: False Advertising, Indiana Unfair Competition
Court: Southern District of Indiana
Judge: Jane Magnus-Stinson
Referred To: Matthew P. Brookman

Complaint: