Flair Airlines, Ltd. v. Gregor LLC, No. 18 C 2023, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Sep. 17, 2018) (Guzman, J.).

Judge Guzman granted in part plaintiff’s Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss certain of defendants’ counterclaims in this case involving Lanham Act trademark infringement and deceptive trade practices, copyright and related state law claims.

This post only addresses the motion as to declaratory judgment copyright ownership claims, not the related state note claims because they do not add anything of interest related to intellectual property issues. The Court granted the motion to dismiss as to the DJ copyright ownership claim because defendants’ allegation of plaintiff’s continued use of the copyrighted material did not create a controversy regarding copyright ownership. Having dismissed the claim, the Court did not need to reach plaintiff’s argument that a limited liability corporation could not own copyright, absent a written agreement regarding transfer. The Court also was not required to address whether defendants’ claim was deficient for not specifically identifying the copyright’s authors or what the copyrighted works were with particularity. Because defendants did not sufficiently plead an ownership controversy, the claim was dismissed.