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A federal appeals court on Monday revived a Trader Joe’s lawsuit accusing a fledgling employee union of trademark infringement for selling t-shirts, buttons, mugs and reusable tote bags featuring the grocery chain’s distinctive red typeface and logo. In a 3-0 decision, The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California said a trial judge was too quick to dismiss the lawsuit against Trader Joe’s United, which said it was created in 2022 and has four local chapters. Circuit Judge Gabriel Sanchez said the strength of the Trader Joe’s name, the chain’s own sale of tote bags, and the “strikingly similar” marks featuring the same red color, similar fonts and concentric circles could confuse consumers. “This is not one of the rare trademark infringement cases in which there is no plausible likelihood that a reasonably prudent consumer would be confused,” Sanchez wrote. Monday’s decision reversed a January 2024 ruling by U.S. District Judge Hernan Vera in Los Angeles, and returned the case to him. Vera called the union’s use of the Trader Joe’s mark fair use, and accused Trader Joe’s of trying to “weaponize the legal system” by suing to gain advantage in a labor dispute. Trader Joe’s disagreed, telling the appeals court that federal labor law protects many important union rights including advocacy, organizing and striking, but “selling branded goods in commerce is not one of them.” The union countered that no reasonable consumer would be confused by its tote bag, the only product sold by both parties. According to court papers, the Trader Joe’s bag featured wine, fruit, cheese and a cutting board. The union bag included a fist holding a box cutter, and the word “union.” Trader Joe’s is based in Monrovia, California, and has about 600 stores. Lawyers for the union did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Trader Joe’s and its lawyers did not immediately respond to similar requests. The case is Trader Joe’s Co v Trader Joe’s United, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 24-720. Jonathan Stempel, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
The U.S. Supreme Court allowed Donald Trump on Monday to keep a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission away from her post for now, temporarily pausing a judicial order that required the reinstatement of the commissioner who the Republican president has sought to oust. The court’s action, known as an administrative stay, gives the justices additional time to consider Trump’s formal request to let him fire Rebecca Slaughter from the consumer protection and antitrust agency prior to her term expiring. The stay was issued by Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles emergency filings arising in Washington, D.C. Roberts asked Slaughter to file a response by next Monday. The Justice Department made the request on Thursday after Washington-based U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan blocked Trump’s firing of Slaughter. AliKhan ruled in July that Trump’s attempt to remove Slaughter did not comply with removal protections in federal law. Congress put such tenure protections in place to give certain regulatory agencies a degree of independence from presidential control. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on September 2 in a 2-1 decision upheld the judge’s ruling, prompting the administration’s request to the Supreme Court. Slaughter said she intends to “see this case through to the end.” “In the week I was back at the FTC it became even more clear to me that we desperately need the transparency and accountability Congress intended to have at bipartisan independent agencies,” Slaughter said. An FTC spokesperson declined to comment. The lower courts ruled that the statutory protections shielding FTC members from being removed without cause conform with the U.S. Constitution in light of a 1935 Supreme Court precedent in a case called Humphrey’s Executor v. United States. In that case, the court ruled that a president lacks unfettered power to remove FTC commissioners, faulting then-President Franklin Roosevelt’s firing of an FTC commissioner for policy differences. The administration in its Supreme Court filing argued that “the modern FTC exercises far more substantial powers than the 1935 FTC,” and thus its members can be fired at will by the president. The court in a similar ruling in May said the Constitution gives the president wide latitude to fire government officials who wield executive power on his behalf. The administration has repeatedly asked the justices this year to allow implementation of Trump policies impeded by lower courts. The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has sided with the administration in almost every case that it has been called upon to review since Trump returned to the presidency in January. Slaughter was one of two Democratic commissioners who Trump moved to fire in March. No more than three of the five commissioners can come from the same party, and the FTC has operated since April with three Republicans at the helm. FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson has pursued conservative political goals at the agency, including holding a workshop on what it called the dangers of gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth, saying the agency would investigate whether employers coordinated diversity, equity and inclusion goals, and telling Google that filtering Republican fundraising emails as spam could be unlawful. The FTC has also sought to investigate media watchdogs accused by Elon Musk of helping orchestrate advertiser boycotts of his social media platform X, and cleared Omnicom’s $13.5 billion acquisition of rival Interpublic after the companies agreed not to steer advertising spend based on political factors. Ferguson, who was appointed as a commissioner by Democratic former President Joe Biden last year, often dissented from actions taken by then-FTC Chair Lina Khan, who carried out a liberal political agenda aimed at checking corporate power. John Kruzel and Jody Godoy, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
For more than 150 years, horse-drawn carriages have been a fixture in Manhattans Central Park. Now, a growing online movement is trying to push them out. Pure joythe feeling I have when I ruin the sale of a horse carriage guy, Kristina Papilion, who posts under the handle @spare_time_gurl, said in a video posted last month. The horse guys hate to see me coming, she added in another. @kristinapap Despite a horse collapsing and dying last week blocks from Central Park – & it being NINETY DEGREES in NYC TODAY – the Central Park horse carriages were still operating. Speak up and help save the horses!!!#centralpark #nyc #newyork #fyp #horse #horses original sound – spare_time_gurl Papilion never intended to become a horsefluencer, as she calls her now-viral series. A New York City local who visits the park almost daily, she felt compelled to speak out after a carriage horse named Lady collapsed and died last month. @kristinapap Another horse died in Central Park today!!! RIP Lady @Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @AlexandriaOcasio-Cortez @Zohran Mamdani #centralpark #nyc original sound – spare_time_gurl At the end of July, I was in California when I recorded a video about how the industry needs to end, Papilion tells Fast Company. I decided to wait and re-record when I got back to New York, thinking it would carry more weight. But before I even could, Lady collapsed and died on 11th Avenue. Thats when I postedthe same day she died. Ladys death has revived a long-running debate over an industry some see as a tourist draw and others as animal abuse. (Fast Company has reached out to the Transport Workers Union for comment.) Since then, Papilion has made it her mission to educate tourists about carriage horses and push back against handlers who, she says, work them during periods of extreme heat. While the drivers may resent her, many commenters cheer her on. Girl, thank you for what youre doing, one wrote. Youre literally my hero, added another. @kristinapap Saturday, August 16 @ 11:30am | Everyones favorite coachman being the horse lover that he is this morning #nyc #centralpark original sound – spare_time_gurl My hope is that the more people see how outdated and cruel this practice is, the harder it becomes to ignore, Papilion tells Fast Company. If the videos push things in the right direction, its worth every aggressive run-in. Papilion is not the only influencer using their platform to speak up about the practice. This is the type of shit that pisses me the fuck off, TikToker Dylan Kevitch remarked in a video posted last month as he biked through Central Park. Just give me five seconds. @dylan.kevitch Save a horse and ride a cowboy! #fyp original sound – msjacksonn89 A few seconds later, he rode past a carriage pulled by a white horse. Put the fucking horse back in the fucking barn, he shouted at the handler. The clip has since gained 2.6 million views. I go to Central Park almost every day to ride a bike, and it kills me to see these adorable horses in the beating sun, Kevitch tells Fast Company. I wanted to take advantage of my platform and use my voice. Ladys death comes three years after another high-profile death of a carriage horse named Ryder. The horses death spurred Ryders Law, a bill introduced in 2022 to phase out and ban horse-drawn carriages in the city by 2026. For the first time, the Central Park Conservancy has thrown its support behind the bill,
Category:
E-Commerce
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