Gucci America, Inc. v. Guess?, Inc.
868 F. Supp. 2D 207 (S.D.N.Y 2012)
By Jesse-Paul V. Albani
Gucci America, Inc. (“Gucci”) claimed Guess?, Inc. (“Guess”) attempted to “Gucci-fy” their product line by infringing four of Gucci’s trademarks and one trade dress on over one thousand stock keeping units. Gucci alleged that Guess and its licensees intentionally copied the famous Green-Red-Green (“GRG”) Stripe appearing on many Gucci accessories, Gucci’s Repeating GG Pattern set at the corners of the Diamond Motif Trade Dress, the Stylized G often used on the interior of Gucci handbags and the Script Gucci modeled after the signature of founder Guccio Gucci.
View PDF – Albani_Gucci America, Inc v Guess Inc
K-Tec, Inc. v. Vita-Mix Corp.
696 F.3D 1364 (Fed. Cir. 2012)
By E. Michelle Emelife
Plaintiff-Appellee K-TEC, Inc. (“K-TEC”) owns two U.S. patents, 6,979,117 (‘117 patent) and 7,281,842 (‘842 patent), for the construction of their commercial blenders. The construction protected by these patents consist of “four side walls,” which may form right angles, and a “fifth truncated wall” that could be planar or curved. The purpose of this particular construction is to decrease cavitation and increase efficiency by creating a vortex that moves from the center of the axis to the truncated wall.
View PDF = Emelife_K-Tec, Inc v Vita-Mix Corp
Flava Works, Inc. v. Gunter
689 F.3D 754 (7th Cir. 2012)
By Jessica Galaif
A Flava user uploaded a video from the Flava website to a host server which was subsequently bookmarked by a myVidster patron. This bookmark automatically led to the creation of a webpage on the myVidster website with the video’s embedded code from the host server. The webpage featured a thumbnail of the bookmarked video that connects anyone who visits the myVidster website to the host server to watch the Flava video. Consequently, Flava brought an action against myVidster alleging contributory copyright infringement.
View PDF – Galaif_Flava Works, Inc v Gunter
Tetris Holding, LLC v. Xio Interactive, Inc.
863 F. Supp. 2D 394 (D.N.J. 2012)
By Tamika Lipford
Plaintiffs, Tetris Holding, LLC and Tetris Company, LLC, (collectively, “Tetris Holding”) brought five claims against defendants, Xio Interactive, Inc. (“Xio”), surrounding their famous puzzle block electronic video game, Tetris. The court addressed only two out of five claims brought forward: 1) Xio’s infringement of Tetris Holding’s copyright protection of Tetris and 2) Xio’s infringement of Tetris Holding’s trade dress protection.
View PDF – Lipford_Tetris Holding, LLC v Xio Interactive, Inc
Capitol Records, Inc. v. Thomas-Rasset
692 F.3D 899 (8th Cir. 2012)
By Kelly Rayburn
Defendant-Appellee Jammie Thomas-Rasset is a Minnesota woman found liable in district court for illegally distributing copyrighted music over the Internet. Plaintiff-Appellants are Capitol Records, Inc., Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Arista Records LLC, Interscope Records, Warner Bros. Records, and UMG Recordings, Inc. (the “Record Companies”). The Recording Companies own huge catalogs of music, including the rights to 24 songs Thomas-Rasset was found to have distributed.
View PDF – Rayburn_Capitol Records, Inc v Thomas-Rasset
1st Media, LLC v. Electronic Arts, Inc.
694 F.3D 1367 (Fed. Cir. 2012)
By Richard Yao
Defendant-Appellees are Electronic Arts, Inc., Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., Viacom Inc., and Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (collectively “Appellees”). Plaintiff-Appellant 1st Media LLC (“1st Media”) is the assignee of patent No. 5,464,946 (the “946 patent”). The ‘946 patent is for a “System and Apparatus for Interactive Multimedia Entertainment” and includes “an entertainment system for use in purchasing and sorting songs, videos, and multimedia karaoke information.”
