Plaintiff Need Not Attach Copyright Registration to Complaint

Posted on April 27, 2011 by R. David Donoghue

Golden v. Nadler Pritikin & Mirabelli, No. 05 C 283, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Dec. 21, 2010) (Gottschall, J.).

Judge Gottschall denied plaintiff Golden's motion to dismiss or for a more definite statement pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) & (e) in this copyright dispute over real estate listings. Golden was not required to attach a copy of its copyright registration to its complaint. And while it was an "extraordinarily close question whether Golden's "bare-bones" amended complaint satisfied Twombly, it did plead ownership of a registered copyright and it did plead that defendant allegedly copied the work without consent. Because Golden's complaint was so bare-bones, defendant's motion to dismiss was not in bad faith. The Court, therefore, denied Golden's Fed. R. Civ. P. 11 motion regarding the motion to dismiss.

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Rule 41(a)(2) Dismissal With Prejudice Warrants Costs But Not Fees

Posted on August 15, 2007 by R. David Donoghue

Illinois Tool Works, Inc. v. Chester Bros. Mach. Prods., Inc., No. 05 C 5002, 2007 WL 2278448 (N.D. Ill. Aug. 6, 2007) (Guzman, J.).

Judge Guzman granted in part plaintiff’s Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(a)(2) motion to dismiss, dismissing the case with prejudice but awarding defendant’s costs. The Court also denied defendant’s motion for attorneys fees. After sending several cease and desist letters, plaintiff Illinois Tool Works (“ITW”) filed suit against Chester Brothers Machined Products (“Chester”) alleging that Chester infringed plaintiff’s trademark in the color orange used with pneumatic nailers and staplers. ITW amended its complaint after Chester served ITW with a Fed. R. Civ. P. 11 motion explaining that Chester did not sell pneumatic nailers. Chester answered the amended complaint and the case proceeded. But during discovery one of ITW’s customers began selling orange pneumatic nailers. As a result, ITW amended its trademark registration to exclude pneumatic nailers and filed the instant motion. The Court agreed to dismiss the claims with prejudice, but held that costs were justified because Chester had not engaged in litigation misconduct. The Court, however, denied defendant’s motion for attorneys fees because Chester never explicitly told ITW that it did not manufacture pneumatic nailers and because ITW’s claims survived Chester’s motion to dismiss.
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