Indiana Intellectual Property Law News
Indianapolis, Indiana – An intellectual property attorney for J & J Sports Productions, Inc. of Campbell, California filed four separate lawsuits in the Southern District of Indiana alleging the illegal interception of the satellite signal for the Manny Pacquiao v. Juan Manuel Marquez, IV Welterweight Fight Program (“Program”) broadcast on December 8, 2012.
J & J Sports states that it is the exclusive domestic commercial distributor of the Program. It has sued multiple Defendants, both individually and doing business as commercial entities, under the Communications Act of 1934 and The Cable & Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992. Specifically, Defendants have been accused of violating 47 U.S.C. § 605 and 47 U.S.C. § 553 by displaying the Program at issue on December 8, 2012 without an appropriate license. A count of conversion is also included.
The Defendants in the four intellectual property complaints are Kelli Membreno, individually and d/b/a El Patron, Ramiro Barrera, individually and d/b/a El Patron, El Patron, Inc., Cassia Cortez, individually and d/b/a Regios, Taqieria Regios, Inc., Lucio Molina, individually and d/b/a La Costenita, a/k/a Restaurant La Costentia, La Costenita Enterprises, Inc., and Maria Monserrat Avalos Hernandez, individually and d/b/a El Parral Dancing Club, all of Indianapolis, Indiana.
In addition to naming the separate legal entities that apparently own the restaurants in question, Plaintiff has also sued various other Defendants as individuals, alleging that they had the right and ability to supervise the activities of the commercial establishments that allegedly engaged in the illegal interception. J & J Sports asserts that the activities that they supervised included the unlawful interception of Plaintiff’s Program. J & J Sports contends that the individual Defendants specifically directed the employees of the restaurants to unlawfully intercept and broadcast Plaintiff’s Program at the commercial establishments or, if they did not, that the actions of the employees of the restaurants are directly imputable to the Defendants sued as individuals by virtue of their purported responsibility for the activities of their respective restaurants.
In the complaints, the intellectual property attorney for J & J Sports listed the following counts:
- Count I: Violation of Title 47 U.S.C. § 605.
- Count II: Violation of Title 47 U.S.C. § 553.
- Count III: Conversion.
J & J Sports asks for damages, as well as costs and attorneys’ fees.
The lawsuits were filed by Charlie W. Gordon of Greene & Cooper LLP. The cases were assigned to Tanya Walton Pratt, Sarah Evans Barker, and Jane Magnus Stinson and Magistrate Judges Michael J. Dinsmore, Debra McVicker Lynch and Denise K. LaRue in the Southern District of Indiana and assigned Case Nos. 1:14-cv-01992-TWP-DKL, 1:14-cv-01994-TWP-MJD, 1:14-cv-02000-JMS-DML and 1:14-cv-02010-SEB-DKL.