Seattle Trademark Lawyer

In the previous post, I wondered how Western District trademark cases were decided. Barring new developments this week, I’ve got the answer for 2006. Thirty pending trademark cases were closed in the last year. Not surprisingly, the overwhelming majority were dismissed voluntarily: twelve by a stipulation and order of dismissal, and eleven by a notice of voluntary dismissal. Most of these likely settled.

The Western District decided three orders on preliminary injunction. Judge Robart granted one (RxSales Prescriptions Sales Company, LLC v. Blue Frog Mobile, Inc.) and denied one (CMSI Inc v. Pacific Cycle, Inc.), and Judge Martinez denied one (Rubber Stamp Management, Inc. v. Kalmbach Publishing Co.).

One plaintiff (in Stenzel v. Pifer) obtained a declaratory judgment that it had not violated the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act — remarkably after changing Judge Zilly’s mind on reconsideration.

Judge Martinez dismissed one defendant on summary judgment (Childers v. Sagem Morpho, Inc.). Judge Zilly denied another defendant’s motion for partial summary judgment (The Christensen Firm v. Chameleon Data Corp.).

Three cases were closed because of stipulated permanent injunctions: Shakespeare Co., LLC v. Silstar Corp. of America, Inc.; Port of Subs, Inc. v. Fleischer; and UBuildIt Corporation v. U Build-U Save, LLC (click for orders).

One case involved a temporary restraining order (Autodesk, Inc. v. Open Design Alliance), which Judge Pechman granted.

Two cases were closed because of default judgments (Qwest Comms. Int’l, Inc. v. Sonny Corp. and World Wide Learn, Inc. v. www.worldswidelearn.com).

There were no trials.

All in all, this strikes me as a slow year for trademark cases. I would have guessed that the Western District had issued five preliminary injunctions, at least a couple temporary restraining orders, and a handful of summary judgment orders. Trials in any civil case are rare these days, so I’m not surprised that we didn’t have any trademark case this year go the distance. When I have time, I will look at how trademark cases were closed in past years to see if this year’s activity was consistent with activity in years past.