Duke’s Mayonnaise can trace its roots to 1917 in Greenville, South Carolina. Founder Eugenia Duke developed a recipe for mayonnaise to add to sandwiches she sold to soldiers fighting in World War I. Eventually, the sandwich shop became an independent business – the Duke Sandwich Company – and Duke’s mayonnaise continued to be produced by new owner C.F. Sauer Company. Nearly 100 years later, C.F. Sauer Company is suing Duke Sandwich Company over alleged trademark infringement and trademark dilution. C.F. Sauer’s lawsuit claims other causes of action, including unfair competition, which fall outside of the scope of this article. A Foundation in Trademark Law The Lanham Act protects…
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FREDERICK ALLEN and NAUTILUS PRODUCTIONS, LLC v. ROY A. COOPER, III, et al.: a Battle over Piracy and Sunken Treasure
The plaintiffs in Frederick L. Allen and Nautilus Productions, LLC v. Roy A. Cooper, III,, et al., a four-year civil lawsuit over the rights to video and photographic footage of the recovery of the wreckage of the Queen Anne’s Revenge (the ship captained by the infamous pirate known as Blackbeard), recently filed a petition for a writ of certiorari seeking the United States Supreme Court to rule on the dispute. The History of the Queen Anne’s Revenge In the early eighteenth century, Blackbeard commandeered the slave ship La Concorde, renaming it the Queen Anne’s Revenge and captaining the ship for years near the Outer Banks of North Carolina. …
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This Suit is Bananas – Halloween Edition
Halloween is just around the corner and if you or your kids are planning on going to a party or trick-or-treating around the neighborhood, you’ve probably already purchased costumes. Afterall, Halloween is a booming business for retailers and Americans will spend around $3.4 billion on costumes this year. If you purchased a banana suit from Kmart this year, you might be frightened to learn that a costume company, Rasta Imposta, sued Kmart over that very banana suit. Never fear, Kmart is the one that might be on the hook, not you. Rasta Imposta filed a complaint in federal court last month alleging copyright infringement, trade dress infringement, and unfair…