Last June, Bradley Burdsall, along with his two companies Egg Works, Inc. and Egg Works 2, LLC (collectively “Egg Works”), brought a trademark infringement lawsuit against Egg World, LLC, and two of its principals, Gabrijel Krstanovic, and Dejan Debeljak (collectively “Egg World”). See Egg Works, Inc. et al v. Egg World LLC et al, Case No. 10-cv-01013 (D. Nev.). On September 14, 2010, the lower court entered an order denying Egg Works’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction. (a copy of that order can be viewed here). For my previous blog post discussing the lower court’s decision, click here.
On September 27, 2011, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in an unpublished decision rendered without oral argument (and without the benefit of any kind of briefs from the Egg World defendants) affirmed the Nevada District Court’s decision to deny Egg Works’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction. See Egg Works, Inc., et al v. Egg World LLC, et al, Appeal No. 10-17534 (9th Cir. April 27, 2011) (unpublished). A copy of the decision can be downloaded here.
The decision is fairly straightforward, with the Court of Appeals finding no abuse of discretion on the part of the lower court in denying Egg Works’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction:
The district court correctly identified the legal standard for likelihood of confusion of a trademark, its findings were not clearly erroneous, and the district court did not clearly err in finding no likelihood of confusion concerning appellants’ trademark. See AMF Inc. v. Sleekcraft Boats, 599 F.2d 341, 348-49 (9th Cir. 1979). We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that appellants failed to meet the requirements to merit preliminary injunctive relief. Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s denial of appellants’ motion for a preliminary injunction.
Of course, given that the Egg World restaurant that gave Egg Works so much heartburn last year closed down earlier this year [Comment—I know from firsthand experience that running a restaurant is tough, and probably more so in these economic times], does Egg Works really want to continue to spend legal fees fighting this out after suffering two battle defeats – even after having essentially won the war at the end of the day? We shall see.
[Full Disclosure: My law firm has represented one of the Defendants in other legal matters, but did not represent any of the Defendants in this case.]
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