Northern District of Illinois Draws Line Between Trademark Infringement and Trade Dress Infringement

In AU Electronics, Inc. v. Harleysville Group, Inc., No. 13 C 5947, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2887 (N.D. Ill. Mar. 10, 2015) the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted summary judgment in favor of Harleysville Group, Inc. and Harleysville Lake States Insurance Co. (collectively Harleysville), finding, in pertinent part, that the underlying complaint did not allege “personal or advertising injury.”

AU Electronics, Inc. was sued by Sprint and T-Mobile for allegedly buying cellphones in bulk, unlocking the phones, and reselling …

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Illinois Federal Court Finds Advertising Injury Coverage Not Implicated by Business Competition and Intellectual Property Claims

In Lemko Corp. v. Federal Insurance Co., No. 12 C 03283, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 138667 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 30, 2014), the Northern District of Illinois granted summary judgment in favor of Federal Insurance Company (Federal) and Cincinnati Insurance Company (Cincinnati), finding that they had no duty to defend Lemko Corporation in a business competition and intellectual property infringement lawsuit brought by Motorola. The underlying complaint involved several claims by Motorola against Lemko originating from Lemko accessing “Motorola computers without authorization, or in excess …

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Sixth Circuit: ‘Advertising Idea’ Must Involve ‘Plan, Scheme, or Design’ to Bring Public Attention; Standing Alone Customer List is Not a ‘Plan’

On Friday, August 15, The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an order from the Eastern District of Kentucky, granting Liberty Corporate Capital Limited’s declaratory judgment determining it has no duty to indemnify or defend the plaintiff firearms retailer.

Security Safe Outlet (SSO), a firearms retailer in Kentucky, acquired BudsGunShop.com LLC’s (the website) customer information database through their employee, Matthew Denninghoff, who previously worked in IT for the website.  Denninghoff allegedly maintained a copy of the website’s customer database and supplied it to his …

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