On January 8, 2015, the Honorable Gary S. Feinerman of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed 9 counterclaims asserted against Slep-Tone Entertainment Corporation, a longstanding client of Jayaram Law.
In Slep-Tone Entertainment Corporation v. John Coyne, Case No. 13-2298, Slep-Tone Entertainment sued Mr. Coyne, a Chicago-area karaoke jockey, for unlawfully copying and displaying Slep-Tone’s registered trademarks without consent or license. Each of Slep-Tone’s claims withstood Mr. Coyne’s motion to dismiss, and Mr. Coyne subsequently filed counterclaims against Slep-Tone.
Judge Feinerman dismissed each of Mr. Coyne’s counterclaims (except for the Count for a declaration of non-infringement, which was not attacked by Slep-Tone). The Court emphatically concluded that Mr. Coyne’s claims of fraud on the USPTO, defamation, antitrust violations, abuse of process and tortious interference all lacked merit as a matter of law. Notably, Judge Feinerman noted that all of Slep-Tone’s disclosures made to the USPTO were made in good faith and adequately satisfied the patent and trademark office’s requirements regarding such disclosures.
Slep-Tone now intends on seeking summary judgment on all of its claims pending before Judge Feinerman.