Bobak Sausage Co. v. Bobak Orland Park, Inc., No. 06 C 4747, 2007 WL 846505 (N.D. Ill. Jar. 19, 2007) (Kennelly, J.).
After an evidentiary hearing, Judge Kennelly held defendants in contempt for violating the stipulated permanent injunction entered by the Court and ordered defendants to comply with the injunction within three weeks or face daily fines. Plaintiff Bobak Sausage Co. ("Bobak’s") makes and sells meat products and operates a related restaurant in Chicago. Bobak’s founder, Frank Bobak, transferred ownership of Bobak’s to his sons. In early 2006, Bobak’s reorganized, which led to two of the sons owning Bobak’s and a third owning a grocery store that Bobak’s had been building. As part of the reorganization, Bobak’s granted two entities rights to use Bobak’s trademarks at retail locations for a six month period. After the six month period ended, Bobak’s filed suit against defendants (including the third son and the licensed retail locations) for, among other things, trademark infringement based upon the continued use of the Bobak’s marks. The parties settled that dispute based at least in part upon a stipulated permanent injunction, which the Court entered, which set various limits on what marks each defendant could use, requirements that the defendants remove and change their signage and requirements that defendants use disclaimers that they were not affiliated with Bobak’s.
But defendants did not comply with the injunction. The Court held that defendants did not replace their signage as required. Additionally, instead of posting permanent signs at entry points to their establishments including disclaimers that the establishment did not sell Bobak’s products, defendants placed sheets of paper at exit points which the Court held were intended to suggest that defendants were the "true inheritor of the Bobak tradition" and which only added the disclaimer as an afterthought. Based upon these findings, the Court gave defendants three weeks to comply with the injunction, including ordering and paying for deposits on new, compliant signage.
Practice tip: If you agree to an injunction, you must be prepared to abide by it.