For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, May 18th, 2020 we will discuss the following cases:

Mondragon v. Nosrak LLC (D.Colo.) (available here)

A District court in Colorado issued a unique sanction against a copyright troll. Plaintiff’s counsel filed a multitude of copyright infringement suits around the country. Counsel has apparently not filed papers correctly, missed hearings, and failed to prosecute cases all around. Defendant motioned to dismiss for failure to prosecute, the court denied the motion but fashioned its own sanction. Said the court, “Plaintiff’s counsel is also ordered to file a copy of this Order, with a cover sheet titled ‘NOTICE OF ATTORNEY SANCTION,’ in any case he currently has pending in this Court and in any future cases that he may file in this Court for the next six months.”

Lanard Toys Limited v. Dolgencorp LLC and Ja-Ru (available here)

Lanard Toys sued a toy store for infringement of its chalk holder design (covered by Design Patent D671,167).  Lanard also had causes of action for copyright infringement, trade dress infringement, and statutory and common law unfair competition. The district court granted summary judgment for defendant, the federal circuit affirmed.

All are invited to attend. Due to the Covid-19 situation the meeting will be conducted electronically via zoom. Join us by using this link. This activity is approved for 1 hour of MCLE credit. If you will be joining us, please RSVP to Elisha Manzur by 9 am Monday morning.