Bit Parts

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied a defense motion to dismiss a false endorsement claim brought under Sec. 43(a) of the federal Lanham Act over the alleged unauthorized manufacture and sale of t-shirts featuring the image of the late movie star Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee Enterprises LLC (BLE) v. A.V.E.L.A. Inc., 10 Civ. 2333. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain emphasized: “Plaintiff need not allege trademark rights in a particular image of Lee because the mark at issue is Lee's persona. Plaintiff [a company established by Lee's family] has sufficiently alleged ownership of Lee's persona.” Judge Swain further noted: “Neither must Plaintiff identify its own specific goods or services that are similar to the t-shirts at issue in order to allege sufficiently a likelihood of confusion. Plaintiff alleges that it 'expends countless resources ' to ' protect the L[ee] Intellectual Property ' all of which serve to designate those goods and services distributed in interstate and [i]nternational commerce as associated with, approved by, and emanating from BLE.' According to Plaintiff, '[t]he Infringing Merchandise designed, manufactured, marketed, and/or sold by ' the Defendants bearing the LEE Intellectual Property are [sic] substantially similar to licensed merchandise marketed and sold by BLE's licensees ” These allegations adequately plead a likelihood of confusion.” But the district judge dismissed an unfair competition claim brought under New York common law against retailers Urban Outfitters and Target on the ground that BLE alleged “that Target and Urban acted in bad faith without proffering any facts to make that conclusion plausible.”