Indiana Intellectual Property Law News

October 4, 2018

Indiana Trademark Litigation: Indiana Company, Tribal-Care Insurance LLC, Sued for Trademark Infringement

Indianapolis, Indiana – Attorneys for Plaintiff, Alliant Specialty Insurance Services, Inc., of San Diego, California, filed suit in the Northern District of Indiana alleging that Defendant, Tribal-Care Insurance LLC of St. John, Indiana, has and continues to infringe its rights in the TribalCare trademark. Plaintiff is seeking an injunction, damages, statutory damages, costs, expenses, and attorneys’ fees in addition to other relief as the Court may deem just and proper.

The Plaintiff alleges that the TribalCare mark was first used in interstate commerce on or about May 24, 2010 by HealthSmart Holdings, Inc. The mark was registered on November 29, 2011 as United States Trademark Registration No. 4,062,744. Just before the mark was officially registered, on or about October 7, 2011, HealthSmart and Alliant came to an agreement that would allow Alliant to use the TribalCare trademark.

According to Alliant, HealthSmart learned of the Defendant’s use of the mark “Tribal-Care” in late 2015 or early 2016. After HealthSmart discovered the allegedly infringing use, they sent a cease and desist letter to Tribal-Care on January 8, 2016. Defendant filed a petition to cancel HealthSmart’s registration in the United States Patent and Trademark Office before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board on August 17, 2016. As a result, HealthSmart assigned the trademark rights in the TribalCare mark to Alliant so they could be substituted into the cancellation action for litigation.

October 3, 2018

166 Trademark Registrations Issued to Indiana Companies in September 2018

By Overhauser Law Offices, LLC

Overhauser Law Offices the publisher of this site, assists with US and foreign trademark searches, trademark applications and assists with enforcing trademarks via infringement litigation and licensing.

Registration No.	Word Mark	Click To View
5572261	COMMODITAG	TSDR
5570702	ASRX	TSDR
5570677	APEX	TSDR
5570622	CHICAGO BIFOLD	TSDR
5570497	BIG IDEAS, SMALL WORLD	TSDR
5570474	COMPDATA EDGE	TSDR
5570226	ABSOLUTE WATER TECHNOLOGIES	TSDR
5570225	ABSOLUTE WATER TECHNOLOGIES	TSDR
5570119	RUSH PUPPY	TSDR
5569660	DIGITAL CHARISMA	TSDR
5572237	ARGUES FOR SPORT	TSDR

September 25, 2018

Southern District of Indiana Judge Grants Motion for Summary Judgment in Design Basics LLC. vs. Kerstiens Homes & Designs Case

By Overhauser Law Offices, LLC

Design Basics, LLC, Plan Pros, Inc. and Prime Designs, all of Omaha, Nebraska, filed suit in the Southern District of Indiana alleging that Kerstiens Homes & Designs, Inc., T-Kerstiens Homes Corp., Kerstiens Realty, Inc., Kerstiens Management Corp., Kerstiens Leasing Corp., Kerstiens Holding Corp., and Kerstiens Development Inc. infringed multiple copyrights of the Plaintiffs.

Plan Pros is in the business of licensing home designs to builders through Plaintiff Design Basics and other such brokers. Design Basics also designs their own home designs and licenses these as construction drawings that can be modified to fit the customer’s needs. Design Basics has published and distributed almost 200 home catalogs and other publications with their copyrighted home designs. For the seven home designs at issue in this case, Design Basics earned $25,000.00 in licensing fees from 116 licenses since 2009.

The Defendants filed summary judgment motions asserting that they were not in the business of building homes or creating house plans for the management and holding companies and that the Plaintiffs’ evidence did not support the elements of a copyright claim for the design and building companies. Further, the home and building companies asserted that they independently created the designs and the Plaintiffs did not show that they own the registrations for the copyrights at issue.

September 21, 2018

Indiana Copyright Litigation: Indiana’s Chicks On The Right Sued for Copyright Infringement

By Overhauser Law Offices, LLC

Indianapolis, Indiana – Attorneys for Plaintiff, Gabriella Bass of Brooklyn, New York, filed suit in the Northern District of Indiana alleging that Defendant, COTR, LLC of Indianapolis, Indiana, infringed her rights in United States Copyright Registration No. VA 2-055-082. Plaintiff is seeking damages, statutory damages, costs, expenses, attorneys’ fees, pre-judgment interest, and other relief as the Court may deem just and proper.

The copyright at issue in this case is that for photographs of the fearless girl statue in New York City with the addition of a urinating dog. Bass licensed the photographs that she took to the New York Post. They subsequently ran an article featuring the photographs on May 29, 2017 with Bass listed as the photographer. Following the release of the New York Post article, COTR ran an article on their website featuring Bass’ photographs. COTR, however, failed to license the photographs from Bass or obtain her permission or consent to publish the photographs in their article.

Bass is suing for copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. §§ 106 and 501 for COTR’s unauthorized use of her photographs. She is seeking damages and statutory damages for this violation for up to $150,000 per work infringed under 17 U.S.C. §504. Bass also alleges that COTR violated 17 U.S.C. § 1202(b) by removing copyright management information identifying Bass as the photographer. Statutory damages under this violation fall under 17 U.S.C. § 1203(c)(3) and amount to at least $2,500 up to $25,000 per violation.

September 14, 2018

WHOIS Information Update

By Overhauser Law Offices, LLC

While finding the owner of a domain name has traditionally been an easy process, as of May 25, 2018, access for WHOIS information has changed. In light of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) adopted by the European Union (“EU”) in April 2016, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”) has had to attempt to form new policies to protect registrant information. The Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data (“Temporary Specification”) is ICANN’s attempt to comply with the GDPR while maintaining the WHOIS system by restricting most personal data. While the personal data will not be publicly available without some effort, those with a legitimate interest in the contact information will be able to request such information through their domain registrar. They may also be able to contact the registrant through anonymized email or web forms.

These changes are really hitting home for trademark owners who may not able to file a complaint directly against the domain name registrant due to the information being restricted. While not all WHOIS information is unavailable, complainants in most cases will have extra steps that they must take in order to file a complaint. If the information is not available on WHOIS, the complainant will have to verify that the information is not publicly available in the complaint. After the complaint has been filed, FORUM will contact the registrar to obtain the restricted contact information. For Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (“UDRP”) cases, the complainant will have to amend the complaint with the newly received registrant contact information. For Uniform Rapid Suspension Systems (“URS”) cases, complaints may not be amended to include additional registrant information under the URS Procedure and Rules, however, the Temporary Specification allows FORUM to add registrant information after the complaint is filed.

The Expedited Policy Development Process (“EPDP”) initiated by ICANN will consider the adoption of the temporary specification and will likely include a discussion of a standardized access model for the restricted registration information. For any questions, you can contact the Director of Arbitration for FORUM, Renee Fossen by mail at 6465 Wayzata Blvd., Suite 480, Minneapolis, MN 55405, by phone at 952-516-6456, or email at rfossen@adrforum.com.

September 6, 2018

Sweeney to Fill Vacancy in Southern District

By Overhauser Law Offices, LLC

Indianapolis, Indiana – Partner from Barnes & Thornburg, James Sweeney, has been unanimously voted to fill the vacancy created by Judge Sarah Evans Barker in the Southern District of Indiana. In November 2017, Sweeney was nominated to fill the vacancy by President Donald Trump. Sweeney will be the first judge to join the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in eight years.

Prior to attending law school, Sweeney earned a B.S. with merit from the United States Naval Academy. He then graduated from the University Notre Dame Law School magna cum laude in 1996. Sweeney subsequently served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable John Daniel Tinder of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District and for the Honorable James L. Ryan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit before joining Barnes & Thornburg.

September 5, 2018

Patent Office Issues 145 Patents To Indiana Citizens in August 2018

By Overhauser Law Offices, LLC

The U.S. Patent Office issued the following 145 patent registrations to persons and businesses in Indiana in August 2018, based on applications filed by Indiana patent attorneys:

Overhauser Law Offices, the publisher of this site, assists with US and foreign patent searches, patent applications and assists with enforcing patents via infringement litigation and licensing.

	Patent No.	Title
1	D0827210	Combination of a door and door frame of an animal enclosure
2	D0827105	Valve
3	D0827104	Valve
4	D0827103	Valve
5	D0827102	Valve

September 4, 2018

164 Trademark Registrations Issued to Indiana Companies in August 2018

By Overhauser Law Offices, LLC

Overhauser Law Offices the publisher of this site, assists with US and foreign trademark searches, trademark applications and assists with enforcing trademarks via infringement litigation and licensing.

Registration No.	Word Mark	Click To View
5539152	COMPETITIVE STRUCTURED BLOCK PLAY	TSDR
5551465	RANGEXPERTS	TSDR
5550999	LIL BUCKS	TSDR
5550790	MOVING FORWARD	TSDR
5550600	MOVING FORWARD	TSDR
5550594	PRECISION PRODUCTS GROUP INC.	TSDR

August 31, 2018

Indiana Patent Litigation: Indiana Corporation Sued for Patent Infringement Involving Programmable Security Systems

By Overhauser Law Offices, LLC

Indianapolis, Indiana – Attorneys for Plaintiff, InVue Security Products Inc. of Charlotte, North Carolina, filed suit in the Southern District of Indiana alleging that Defendant, Mobile Tech, Inc. d/b/a Mobile Technologies Inc. and MTI, formerly known as Merchandising Technologies, Inc. of Hillsboro, Oregon, but incorporated in Indiana, infringed its rights in United States Patent No. 10,062,266, (the “‘266 patent”) for a “Programmable Security System and Method for Protecting Merchandise”. Plaintiff is seeking a permanent injunction, damages, judgment awarding InVue a reasonable royalty, prejudgment interest, and other relief the Court may deem just and proper.

Chief executive officers for both parties met in person on April 11, 2018 to discuss the defendant’s Intellikey 3.0, its Gateway products, and other potentially infringing items “Accused Items”. The plaintiff provided defendant with a copy of at least Claim 1 of the pending ‘266 patent, informing them that the Intellikey 3.0 would infringe the claims of the ‘266 patent when issued. The application for the ‘266 patent published on August 16, 2018 and the ‘266 patent issued on August 28, 2018, just before the Complaint was filed.

The first cause of action in the Complaint is for direct infringement of the ‘266 patent as MTI manufactures, offers for sale, sells, imports, and/or uses the Accused Items. Second, contributory infringement of the ‘266 patent is alleged as the Accused Items are not staple articles of commerce, are not suitable for a substantial non-infringing use, and are especially made or adapted for use in an infringement of the ‘266 patent. Third, infringement by inducement because the defendant sells the Accused Items to customers with the intent that they will use and operate them in a manner that infringes the ‘266 patent. Finally, plaintiffs claim that defendants should be held liable for pre-issuance damages as they were aware and had actual notice of the patent application after it published.

August 24, 2018

Indiana Copyright Litigation: Attorney Bell Sues Another for Copyright Infringment

By Overhauser Law Offices, LLC

Indianapolis, Indiana – Plaintiff and Attorney, Richard N. Bell of McCordsville, Indiana, filed suit in the Southern District of Indiana alleging that Defendant, Joan Mattox, infringed his rights to the “Indianapolis Photo” registered on August 4, 2011 with the U.S. Copyright Office, Registration No. VA0001785115. Plaintiff is seeking actual and statutory damages, costs, reasonable attorney’s fees and other relief deemed just and proper.

Bell has filed many copyright infringement cases on his own behalf based on his copyrights. See:

In this case, Bell claims that Mattox created a website to promote her business in the Indianapolis area with the domain name of http://www.readymadestaffing.com/. The Defendant then used the Indianapolis Photo on the website to garner the attention of prospective customers. It is alleged that the Indianapolis Photo was displayed on the webpage on or about December 15, 2015 and was still being displayed as of the filing of the Complaint. Bell is suing for copyright infringement and vicarious liability for each third-party download of the Indianapolis Photo from the Mattox’s website. Bell claims that Mattox falsely claimed that Ready Made Resources owned all of the photos and images on their website and used the Indianapolis Photo commercially without paying for the use or obtaining authorization from the Plaintiff. Further, Bell alleges that the Defendant refuses to pay damages for the unauthorized use and has not agreed to be enjoined from further use of the Indianapolis Photo.

It is alleged that the Indianapolis Photo was displayed on the webpage on or about December 15, 2015 and was still being displayed as of the filing of the Complaint. Bell is suing for copyright infringement and vicarious liability for each third-party download of the Indianapolis Photo from the Mattox’s website. Bell claims that Mattox falsely claimed that Ready Made Resources owned all of the photos and images on their website and used the Indianapolis Photo commercially without paying for the use or obtaining authorization from the Plaintiff. Further, Bell alleges that the Defendant refuses to pay damages for the unauthorized use and has not agreed to be enjoined from further use of the Indianapolis Photo.