Proper Venue

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Wine & Canvas Development, LLC, et al. v. Christopher Muylle, et al.

Case No.: 15-2088; 15-3658

Officials: BAUER and KANNE, Circuit Judges, and FEINERMAN, District Judge

Focus: Proper Venue

Wine and Canvas Development, LLC, Anthony Scott, Tamara McCracken, and Donald McCracken sued Christopher Muylle, Theodore Weisser, YN Canvas CA, LLC, Art Uncorked LLC, and Weisser Management Group LLC, bringing federal trademark and state law claims. Muylle brought several counterclaims, including one for abuse of process under Indiana law. Weisser defaulted, and it appears that Weisser and Muylle were the only members of the defendant LLCs, so practically speaking the case ultimately amounted to Plaintiffs against Muylle. Pretrial motions disposed of much of the case, and the jury found for Muylle on Plaintiffs’ trademark infringement and false designation of origin claims and on Muylle’s abuse of process counterclaim. Plaintiffs appeal, and we affirm.

On appeal, Plaintiffs cite Kusay for the proposition that filing a notice of appeal divests the trial court of jurisdiction, but they inexplicably fail to acknowledge that Kusay describes the exception to the rule invoked by the district court. Nor do Plaintiffs attempt to distinguish Kusay and Terket or argue that they were wrongly decided. This follows an unfortunate pattern in this litigation; as the district court noted, Plaintiffs “filed many motions to reconsider numerous court orders simply to reargue unaccepted arguments.” 2015 WL 5513461, at *2. While a party may argue in good faith for the inapplicability, modification, or reversal of existing authority, it nonetheless has a duty to acknowledge and grapple with such authority. Pretending the authority does not exist in hopes that the court will overlook it is never the appropriate course.

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.