Hyman Enterprises, LLC (Lenox, MA) and its founder have sued Natural Sherpa LLC (Wilmington, NC) and its owners for trademark infringement, publicity rights violations, and breach of contract stemming from an apparent separation agreement between Hyman and its UltraWellness companies and the founders of Natural Sherpa.
The complaint is vague on details since it calls the terms of the agreement confidential, but it does allege, pursuant to an agreement signed in June 2010, that the founders of Natural Sherpa agreed to various non-compete terms as well as to a confidentiality clause.
The complaint alleges that Natural Sherpa then emailed close to 300,000 people with a subject line of “A Special Note to UltraWellness Customers.” The complaint alleges that the email improperly referred to trademarks, services, and products of the plaintiff as well as disclosed purportedly confidential terms of the June 2010 agreement. The complaint does not mention specifically what else the email said, nor does it allege any further use of plaintiff’s marks by the defendants.
Perhaps by contacting plaintiff’s customers the defendants breached their non-compete obligations, but on its face the complaint doesn’t make much of a case for trademark infringement.
Hyman Enterprises, LLC v. Natural Sherpa LLC, 10-30210-KPN (D. Mass. Nov. 4, 2010)
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