U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals Case No. 22-558
We successfully represented Gov. Sarah Palin in her appeal of the dismissal of and jury verdict in her defamation case against the Times and James Bennet, which resulted in a reversal and a new trial being ordered. You can read the Second Circuit’s August 28, 2024 Opinion here: https://tcb-law.com/opinion
After a three-week trial, a jury returned a verdict of $140.1 million in favor of our client Terry Bollea, professionally known as Hulk Hogan, against the media giant Gawker. Our lawyers handled jury selection, opening statements, closing arguments, and the examinations of all key witnesses.
We represented Work Cat, a short sea shipping operator that provides trans-Gulf container transportation, in connection with claims against a tug operator, LIM, for damages caused to a barge chartered by Work Cat for use in its operation. We tried Work Cat’s claim for gross negligence during a two-day federal bench trial in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida. Following the trial, a favorable settlement was reached on behalf of Work Cat.
After a five-day federal jury trial, the jury awarded our clients $932,000.00 on their theft of trade secrets claims against a former CEO.
We appealed an adverse ruling against our client in a domain name arbitration that required our client to transfer the domain, tampawatertaxi.com, to the opposing party. In the district court lawsuit, we demonstrated that the unregistered mark, Tampa Water Taxi, was geographically descriptive and had not acquired secondary meaning. As such, our client was permitted to retain the domain and use the mark in its advertising. We also obtained a judgment for our client’s costs against the defendant.
We represented Efraim Diveroli’s publishing company against Warner Brothers relating to the movie War Dogs. Johah Hill played Diveroli in what was described as a true story. We sued for false advertising under the Lanham Act because our client was attempting to tell Diveroli’s true story and was pushed out of the market due to Warner’s misrepresentations about the truth of the movie. After obtaining a noteworthy order denying Warner Brothers’ motion to dismiss, which was covered by The Hollywood Reporter, we negotiated a settlement for our client.
We represented the recording artist Robert Ritchie, p/k/a Kid Rock. Feld owned trademark rights in the mark, “Greatest Show on Earth,” dating back to its operation of the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus. Feld sued Kid Rock for trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and related claims. The plaintiff immediately filed a motion for preliminary injunction with supporting survey evidence. We defended the motion, attacked the survey evidence, and convinced the court to deny the motion for an injunction, leading to a favorable settlement for our client.
We secured a jury verdict for zero liability for our client, a real estate developer facing fraud and misrepresentation claims in excess of $1 million, after he had already been defaulted on liability for failing to answer the original complaint while defending himself pro se.