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Intellectual Property – Lanham Act

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//August 22, 2014//

Intellectual Property – Lanham Act

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//August 22, 2014//

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Intellectual Property – Lanham Act

An architectural firm’s complaint that a former architect was falsely claiming to have designed their projects was improperly dismissed.

“If sophisticated clients would not be misled, then this suit represents an effort by Gensler to conceal the fact that a designer of Shanghai Tower (and other big projects) has flown the coop. That fact is known, to be sure, but if Gensler wins this case other architects who leave will be required to keep mum about their accomplishments—and then it will be Gensler, not the departing architect, that is in a position to make a misleading presentation to a future client. If only ‘Gensler’ and not any real person designs a building, the firm can never suffer from the departure of talented designers, because Gensler the corporation remains. Alternatively the suit could be understood as an effort to impair competition by imposing costs on a departing architect, even though setting up a new firm does not violate any contract (and the old employer does not allege a theft of trade secrets). New competition by people who leave large firms to set up small rivals is beneficial for consumers.”

“These considerations make it tempting to affirm the district court’s judgment, though not for the district court’s reasons. Yet Strabala has not asked us to take that course. His brief defends the district court’s reasoning and does not ask us to affirm on a different ground. It does not invoke Rule 9(b) or contend that sophisticated clients understand that no single architect is the sole designer of a monster project such as Shanghai Tower. The district court dismissed the complaint under Rule 12(b)(6), and we do not think that Gensler has pleaded itself out of court just by alleging that Strabala tries to attract sophisticated customers for large projects. At least for now, Strabala is not arguing that any of Gensler’s allegations, or the suggestion that sophisticated clients might think Strabala the sole designer of a billion-dollar building, is implausible as Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662 (2009), and Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007), use that term. Nor does Gensler’s complaint rule out the possibility that it competes with Strabala to build some smaller projects with less sophisticated clients. We have explained why the complaint’s legal theory is tenable, and the possibility that it might fail on the facts does not authorize a court of appeals to dismiss a suit before the parties have joined issue on vital topics.”

Vacated and Remanded.

12-2256 M. Arthur Gensler, Jr., & Associates, Inc., v. Strabala

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Guzmán, J., Easterbrook, J.

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