District of Massachusetts IP Blog

Article on Business Methods Prompts Infringement Allegations

New Frontier Advisors, LLC (Boston, MA) has sued Intuitive Allocations, LLC (Nashville, TN) for infringement of Patent Nos. 6,003,018 and 6,928,418 directed to portfolio optimization and rebalancing.  The suit followed an article published by Intuitive describing its business methods, which New Frontier felt were infringing its patents. 

 

The complaint asserts two counts, one for infringement and one for declaratory judgment of validity and enforceability. 

 

Questions for consideration:  Is affirmatively seeking declaratory judgment of validity and enforceability a common practice?  What are the benefits to doing so, rather than simply responding to an affirmative defense / counterclaim?  Is there any court that treats the issue differently because it was raised by the patentee first?

 

New Frontier Advisors, LLC v. Intuitive Allocations, LLC, 10-10923-RBC (D. Mass. June 4, 2010)

Cheaters Never Win; Cheating Aids Get Dragged Into Federal Court

Jagex (Cambridge, UK) is suing Impulse Software (Indialantic, FL) and its owners for copyright and trademark infringement as well as violations of the DMCA and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.  Jagex owns and operates the RuneScape massive multiplayer online game.  Jagex alleges that the defendants operate a variety of cheating websites for such online games, including for RuneScape, which allow players to advance in the game without the necessary participation.  The complaint details how Jagex believes the defendants’ software operates and how the defendants make money from the software.

 

Interesting that the case was filed in D. Mass., as neither party seems to have a connection to the Commonwealth.  Perhaps this case may end up transferred, likely to Florida.

 

Jagex Ltd. v. Impulse Software, 10-10216-RBC (D. Mass. Feb. 9, 2010)

Beer Fight!

Bear City Brewing Co. (Cloverdale, CA) has filed a trademark and trade dress infringement suit against Central City Brewing Co. (Surrey, BC, Canada) who is alleged to have recently started selling beer in Massachusetts.

Bear sells beer under the RACER 5 and RED ROCKET marks.  Bear also alleges that in the past fifteen years no other beer company has used the marks RACER or RED ROCKET for beer.  The complaint [link below] goes into great depths describing the history of the beers, the labels, awards won, etc.

In October 2009 Central City began marketing its own RED RACER line of beers in Massachusetts. [Ed. note – I have not tried any of the aforementioned beers, but will endeavor to do so.]  Pictures of the allegedly infringing cans (!) are shown in the complaint.

The complaint alleges several instances of actual confusion between the two beer lines, including several misdirected communications during a beer trade show.

Although there may be some similarities between the marks as used, there are differences as well, including distinct differences in the overall label / can designs.  Another issue the plaintiff may have is that its federal registrations are not to RACER and RED ROCKET but rather to RACER 5 INDIA PALE ALE and BEAR REPUBLIC RICARDO’S RED ROCKET ALE. 

Bear may want to take this opportunity to rethink its registration portfolio.  If (up until now) it’s been the only company to use the marks RACER or RED ROCKET for beer, there’s no excuse for not having registrations on those marks.

Bear City Brewing Co. v. Central City Brewing Co., 10-10118-RBC (D. Mass. Jan. 26, 2010)

Download Centralcitycomplaint

[UPDATE - Bear City's motion for a preliminary injunction was denied.  See here.  I also managed to find some RACER 5 INDIA PALE ALE.  Tasty.]