Corporate & Commercial

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Patagonia’s (the clothing maker) lawsuit against Anheuser Busch will proceed following a finding that Patagonia may (just may…) be able to support those claims that its brand is one of the most recognized and famous in the world. By way of background – Anheuser-Busch recently launched a “Patagonia” beer at ski resorts in Colorado under the name “Patagonia Brewing Company” and went on to register a trademark for “Patagonia” in beer. Here’s what that looked like: Picture from Lawsuit by Patagonia over Anheuser-Busch Patagonia Beer. Ski Resort Sales Pop-up. Guess what the sales staff wore? Picture from Lawsuit by Patagonia…
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A foreign currency trading firm was implicated in misconduct when a separate company it had traded with was investigated by a regulatory authority. The second company settled the investigation with the regulator, and the regulator published documents relating to the investigation and settlement on its website. The documents named the trading firm and implied that the firm had engaged in illegal practices. The trading firm sued the regulator, arguing that the regulator had violated its due process rights and defamed it in the documents on its website. The district court dismissed the action, finding that the trading firm had not…
The Center for Food Safety a national no-profit public interest and environmental advocacy organization recently published, in partnership with the Center for Cannabis Safety, a report evaluating 40 CBD producers on their production and processing methods, testing protocols and transparency to consumers. In addition to detailing the manufacturing practices and providing information about the organic certification of the CBD producers, and what processing techniques they utilize in CBD extraction, the Hemp CBD report also contains results on multiple issues (self-reported by CBD producers) regarding the CBD producer’s testing for the presence of pesticides, heavy metals such as lead, and…
This case is interesting because other recent attempts by neighbors of cannabis growers to sue for diminished land values and enjoyment of real property have met with dismissal by district courts finding that allegations of diminished market value of land are insufficient to constitute an injury under RICO where that statute requires “proof of concrete financial loss rather than mere injury to a valuable, intangible property interest.”  But this case isn’t going that way. The court has decided to let the claims proceed against the marijuana grower. The plaintiff, Momtazi Family LLC, who operated and owned a vineyard that is…
A Florida based wine importer, Orion Wine Imports, LLC and its owner brought an action challenging the constitutionality of the California statute that permit alcoholic beverages to be imported to California only when consigned and delivered to a licensed importer at the importer’s licensed premises or at a licensed public warehouse. The plaintiffs claimed the California statute violates the Commerce Clause and the Privileges and Immunities Clause and sought to require California to offer permits to out-of-state wine importers and wholesalers to obtain licenses under the same or similar licensure terms as in-state importers and wholesalers as well as to…
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On July 31, 2019, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law HB834, which amends the Illinois Equal Pay Act by restricting employers’ ability to inqure about or use pay history in hiring and compensation decisions. Illinois becomes the eleventh state to enact legislation prohibiting salary history inquiries by private employers. Other states like Michigan and Wisconsin, however, have gone the opposite way passing legislation prohibiting local governments from enacting salary history inquiry ban laws. The No Salary History law, will take effect by October 1, 2019, giving employers just 60 days to adjust their policies and hiring procedures to…
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In Illinois Tool Works, Inc. v. Ace Specialty Ins. Co., 2019 IL App (1st) 181945, the Illinois Appellate Court upheld the lower court’s grant of partial summary judgment to two insurance companies holding that the insurers had no duty to defend an insured in a pre-suit mediation of environmental contamination claims as said claims did not constitute a “suit” within meaning of the applicable commercial general liability (“CGL”) policy. On appeal, the court also distinguished the case from its 1997 holding in Benoy Motor Sales, Inc. v. Universal Underwriters Ins. Co., 287 Ill. App. 3d 942 (1st …
One of our favorite alcohol advertising cases is finally progressing again. The 8th Circuit has set September 26, 2019, as the oral argument date for the parties in Missouri Broadcasters v. Schmitt et al. The case is a challenge by an advertiser, a manufacturer, and a retailer to stop Missouri’s alcohol advertising rules that allegedly impermissibly regulate truthful advertising by banning certain forms of advertisements and compelling others. Namely, regulations on advertising beer wine and spirits: Barring wholesalers, wineries, distilleries or breweries from advertising sales at a single retailer as opposed to promoting two or more; Barring media companies, radio…
You’d be hard pressed to find a stronger condemnation of the failure to hold an en banc hearing than this recent dissent filed in Total Wine’s challenge to the post and hold provisions of Connectcicut’s alcohol regulatory laws. We wrote about how Total Wine lost this challenge back in February. While the three-judge panel that decided Total Wine wouldn’t win the case noted the circuit split between their decision and the way the 4th and 9th Circuits had addressed the issue, they still upheld the state’s post and hold law under a decades-old precedent. Turns out, that didn’t sit…
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A company that purchases tax liens in order to obtain tax deeds to properties sued Law Bulletin for breach of contract over a misprinted hearing date in a Take Notice, which the company alleged cost it $1 million when the circuit court denied the company’s tax deed application due to the misprint. Following a trial, the jury entered a verdict in favor of Law Bulletin and against the company finding that the company had not fully performed its obligations under the parties’ contract. The First District Appellate Court affirmed finding that the trial court had not committed an error in…
The 7th Circuit has reversed and remanded a district court’s dismissal of a small Wisconsin brewer’s antitrust challenge to allegedly anticompetitive and monopolistic practices in the Ontario beer market. The district court had dismissed Mountain Crest SRL’s Sherman Act lawsuit against large brewers Anheuser-Busch Inbev and Molson Coors. The small brewer’s assertions were that the larger brewers allegedly conspired through their ownership of Canadian retail stores (the Beer Store) to keep other brewers from successfully selling into the Ontario beer market and from bringing beers packaged in anything larger than six-pack containers by contracting. The complaint asserted this…
A “Ponzi scheme for wine” – that’s how the government summarized the operations of the wine merchant who ran the now-defunct Premier Cru in Berkeley, California. Customers bought wine and wine-futures from Premier Cru and were not always in direct possession of the wines they “owned” through purchases made from Premier Cru. Importantly, they were not always able to confirm that the wines were in the possession or ordered by Premier Cru – either because they were stored at Premier Cru when purchased and never sent to the customer, the customer wanted to take possession but Premier Cru never…
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Our last update on the ongoing corn syrup saga was that MillerCoors had appealed the district court’s decision that granted it an injunction for most of the corn syrup advertising but failed to stop the use of the “made with” “brewed with” and “use” language in Anheuser Busch’s corn syrup ads. Anheuser has now filed its response brief in the appeal (read it here) and MillerCoors has filed its reply (read it here). Briefly (yes, I went there), Anheuser’s response is that the district court was correct and that MillerCoors’ beers are “made with” brewed with”…
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In Navigators Ins. Co. v. American Home Assurance Co., 2019 WL 2583253, — S.W.3d —- (Mo. Ct. App. 2019), the Missouri Court of Appeals held that a commercial general liability insurance policy provided no coverage for claims that an electrical cooperative wrongfully installed fiber optic cable on electrical transmission easements. The court held that there was no “property damage” coverage because the use of the easement did not involve tangible property damage and there was no “personal and advertising injury” coverage because the electrical cooperative was not the “owner” of the property on which it was alleged to…
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In a 3-0 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that Facebook users in Illinois can move forward with a class-action lawsuit challenging the company’s use of facial recognition technology. Facebook had argued that the court should not let the plaintiffs proceed on a class basis with claims that it violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (often referred to a “BIPA”). The Ninth Circuit’s ruling in Patel v. Facebook affirmed the District Court’s decision to certify a class of Illinois Facebook users. The BIPA is intended to protect the biometric privacy of Illinois citizens by…
Question:       I own an interest in a limited liability company with others through which we operate a professional service business. Our company holds a significant amount of assets largely consisting of equipment, accounts receivable and cash. How can we protect the company assets from creditors in a tax-effective manner? Answer:          There are various actions you can take to protect limited liability company (“LLC”) assets from creditors.  As a professional, your greatest liability concern is likely malpractice creditors.  Procuring and maintaining professional liability insurance is no doubt the best form of protection from clients and others  who file malpractice claims  against the…