A federal court in Ohio recently granted Cavalier Distributing’s motion to temporarily restrain a fellow distributor, MicroStar Logistics, from contacting other keg suppliers to accuse Cavalier of failing to pay a debt or...more
Marie Sharp’s Fine Foods, Ltd., a Belize condiment and jam manufacturer, and Eve Sales Corp., a New York-based purchaser of Marie Sharp’s branded products, filed an anticipatory declaratory judgment and breach of contract...more
A recent federal court decision in T&T Management, Inc. v. Choice Hotels, Inc. underscores key contractual and operational considerations for franchisors. T&T filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota...more
The growling and barking presented by a claim for tortious interference is often far worse than the bite. Consider Segundo Navarro Drilling, Ltd. v. Chilton , which is a good example of that phenomenon in an oil and gas...more
A United States District Court (N.D. Ohio) (“Court”) in an October 14th Order addressed a dispute arising out of a Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Agreement (“NDA”) and Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) involving two...more
We are now in the era of freedom of contract in the logistics arena. While contracts provide many protections to contracting parties, they can also be used offensively, to affirmatively protect legal rights. ...more
A federal district court in Texas denied a preliminary injunction filed by a franchisee (“EYM”) after Pizza Hut, as franchisor, terminated the franchise agreements....more
A federal court in California recently granted partial summary judgment in favor of a distributor of wine corks for breach of an exclusivity provision following the supplier’s sale of certain corks in the United States. M.A....more
Ohio- Enforceability of Arbitration Agreement- Bryan Costin v. Midwest Vision Partners LLC., 8th Dist. Cuyahoga No. 112651, 2024-Ohio-463. The Eighth District Court of Appeals recently affirmed the trial court’s ruling...more
When representing an aggrieved plaintiff in a commercial matter, there are certain business torts that I tend to rely on more heavily than others. If business torts were foods, for example, a claim like breach of contract...more
The recent lawsuit filed by the New York Knicks against a former employee, the Toronto Raptors’ parent organization, and the Raptors’ head coach, could be a harbinger of a rise in employment and trade secret litigation in...more
On September 13, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas granted in part and denied in part UMB Bank’s motion to dismiss counterclaims for tortious interference, breach of contract, and breach of the duty of...more
The New York Knicks just sued their former employee and his new employer, the Toronto Raptors, in a case that can teach employers a lot about trade secret misappropriation. The August 21 lawsuit accuses their Eastern...more
X Corp., the company formerly known as Twitter, recently sued Bright Data over its site scraping activities. Bright Data is a data collection company and advertises—among other services—its “website scraping” solutions....more
In a late-March 2023 decision out of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, a court denied a plaintiff's request for attorneys' fees against a defendant who filed "objectively specious" counterclaims...more
The Lanham Act- Lewis v. Acuity Real Estate Services, 6th Cir. 22-1406- In this appeal, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s decision dismissing the complaint under the Lanham Act because such a...more
A federal court in Ohio denied a distributor’s motion for a preliminary injunction, holding that it failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits of its claims against a beer importer who chose a different...more
Ohio- Tortious Interference with Business Relations Emanuel’s LLC v. Restore Marietta, 4th Dist. Washington No. 2023-Ohio-147. In this appeal, the Fourth Appellate District affirmed the trial court’s decision to grant...more
Lenders seeking to challenge controversial, often punitive, liability management transactions scored a recent win in Boardriders. The transaction at issue, a priming uptier exchange transaction favoring certain...more
A cease-and-desist letter is a warning to businesses or individuals to stop certain harmful actions. The letter may even threaten legal action if the recipient does not comply. If you receive a cease-and-desist letter,...more
On June 3, 2022, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that an Arizona district court erred in dismissing a defamation suit for lack of personal jurisdiction. The suit was brought by an attorney against three Catholic...more
It’s a fact pattern that repeatedly arises in trade secret cases: a company hires someone who has a confidentiality agreement with their former employer. Just before (or shortly after) being hired, the individual emails...more
The South Carolina Supreme Court issued two decisions late in 2021 that may impact employers’ and co-workers’ potential liability in litigation arising from an employee’s discharge....more
The court’s decision in Yatra Online, Inc. v. Ebix, Inc. et al (C.A. No. 2020-0444-JRS (Del. Ch. May 13, 2021)) underscores the importance of carefully considering the language of a contract’s termination provisions when...more
Commercial leases often contain attorney fee provisions allowing a party who prevails in litigation to recover attorney fees from the losing party. Can those attorney fee provisions apply to third parties — outsiders to...more