Commercial Litigation Update

The Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”), which became law as part of the National Defense Authorization Act in 2021, is aimed at enhancing corporate transparency and combating money laundering and other financial crimes.

Beginning in January, the CTA will require many small businesses to file a beneficial owner report for their companies’ LLC or corporation with the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”). Non-compliance with the reporting requirements can result in civil and criminal penalties. The information collected ...

Recently, a federal judge in New Jersey confirmed an arbitration award in favor of an insurer resulting from the independent dispute resolution (“IDR”) process created under the No Surprises Act. This is one of the first times an IDR award has been confirmed by the courts and demonstrates that the FAA’s presumption in favor of arbitration awards will apply to IDR determinations even without reasoned awards.

GPS, a medical practice in New Jersey, performed emergency plastic surgery on a patient in 2022. Following the procedure, GPS submitted a bill to Horizon, the patient’s ...

Summer 2023 is heating up to be the Summer of Barbie. Last week Mattel filed a Notice of Opposition against Burberry’s proposed “BRBY” trademark with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board asserting likelihood of confusion with Mattel’s Barbie brand. It asserts that Mattel will be damaged if Burberry is permitted to register “BRBY” because the mark is “highly similar” in “appearance, sound, and commercial impression.” Mattel has said that “when spoken aloud, the marks are phonetically identical.” It also asserts that a BRBY mark on clothing, bags or accessories would dilute the Barbie brand and consumers may be fooled into thinking the mark is a “subset or expansion” of Barbie. 

Litigants and attorneys often assume—wrongly—that arbitration proceedings are completely confidential. In fact, there are many ways that private arbitration proceedings can become subject to public scrutiny.

Jack Daniel’s Property, Inc. has successfully petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its dispute against VIP Products LLC, a dog-toy maker known for its playful products that mimic various beverage brands. Jack Daniel’s argues that the 3x10 inch “Bad Spaniels” vinyl dog toy portraying a parody version of the well-known whiskey label violates its federal trademark rights and tarnishes the Jack Daniel’s brand. 

Public figures are fighting back against fake news.

In the most recent headline from the world of celebrity defamation cases, E. Jean Carroll is suing former President Trump for statements he made after she accused him of sexual assault. In a 2019 book and excerpt in New York magazine, Carroll, a longtime advice columnist for Elle magazine, accused Trump of sexual assault in the mid-1990s. Trump responded that Carroll was “totally lying” and not his “type.” Carroll sued Trump for defamation, claiming his statements had harmed her reputation. But Carroll—like all public figure defamation plaintiffs—has an uphill battle before her. To succeed, Carroll will have to prove that Trump’s statements were false, and—because Carroll is a public figure—she will also have to show that Trump acted with “actual malice.” The actual malice standard often proves to be too high a threshold for most public figures to cross, and most cases are lost on that prong—regardless of whether the statement was false. In fact, Johnny Depp was one of the few public figures in recent years to win a defamation suit.