Judge Joanna Seybert
Law firm Parker Waichman (PW) advertised its services over its YOURLAWYER.COM site. From 2007 until September 2012 PW employed Laraia to assist in programming and designing pages for YOURLAWYER.COM. Laraia's employment agrement purportedly barred his unpermitted disclosure of information to third parties. Prior to 2008 defendant law firm Gilman hired Laraia to assist preparation of its own site, which allegedly "copied" features of PW's YOURLAWYER.COM site. PW's Sept. 12, 2012, lawsuit charged, among other things, trade dress infringement violating the Lanham Act. The court granted Laraia judgment on the pleadings and dismissed PW's claims without prejudice. In granting Laraia dismissal of the trade dress infringement charge the court found that PW's complaint inadequately defined YOURLAWYER.COM's allegedly protected "look and feel." PW's incomplete catalog of site features did not address Lanham Act §43(a)'s other elements for an infringement claim. PW's conclusory allegations failed to plausibly suggest that the combination of blue headers, pause and forward buttons, and brightly colored boxes were synonymous with PW's firm or would cause consumers to mistake Gilman's website for YOURLAWYER.COM.
