U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
The Sixth Circuit affirmed denial of a preliminary injunction against P&G’s Spruce weed killer, holding that Scotts failed to prove its Miracle-Gro green-and-yellow trade dress was distinctive enough to support a likelihood of confusion.
The Sixth Circuit reversed summary judgment for George Clinton and his company Thang, holding that genuine disputes of material fact exist about whether the late P-Funk keyboardist Bernie Worrell was a co-author and co-owner of the group’s sound recordings under copyright law.
The Sixth Circuit holds that district courts may not require ‘clear and convincing evidence’ for each preliminary injunction factor in trade secret cases, reversing a lower court’s denial of injunctive relief against an engineer who allegedly took proprietary documents to a competitor.
In a 2-1 decision, the Sixth Circuit affirmed only $1 in nominal damages for Sanyo’s admitted misuse of Oldnar’s touchscreen know-how under a joint development agreement, holding that the plaintiff’s sole royalty-based damages theory was legally inapplicable.
The Sixth Circuit held that Static Control Components had standing to sue Lexmark under the Lanham Act for false advertising in the toner cartridge market — a ruling affirmed by the Supreme Court in 2014 under a new zone-of-interests and proximate cause standing framework that displaced the split among circuits on Lanham Act false advertising standing.