July 25, 2017
On July 18th, 2017, Lilenfeld PC, won a jury trial in a trademark infringement action. The trial was in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia for Fronto King LLC, a marketer of whole tobacco leaves under the brand Fronto King. Fronto King sought an injunction and a monetary award against the Defendants (Five A Trading, Inc. d/b/a A to Z Wholesale and New Generation Imports, LLC), who used a product package design that was similar to the package design Fronto King began using years earlier.
David M. Lilenfeld and Kaitlyn A Haase conducted the two-day federal trial for Fronto King.
Fronto King is the leading brand of high-quality tobacco leaves used to wrap hand-rolled cigars – an increasingly popular hobby in the U.S.
While the jury deliberated, Lilenfeld and team offered a settlement of $150,000 to the defense, in which no response was received. Less than 45 minutes later, the jury came back with a verdict.
Having found that there was a likelihood of confusion between Fronto King’s package design and the package design adopted by the Defendants, the jury awarded Fronto King $21,400 in damages plus disgorgement of Five A Trading’s $250,000 in profits.
From Fronto King’s perspective, the most important part of the trial’s outcome is that the Defendants can no longer use their confusingly similar packaging.
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