Judge Shira Scheindlin
Luv n’ Care Ltd. and Admar International Inc. (collectively LNC) sell sippy cups and other children’s products in the United States under the NUBY brand name, or through private labels including Precious Moments and Parent’s Choice. Regent Baby Products Corp. which sells products under the Baby King brand name and under private labels, allegedly infringed the design patent and corresponding trade dress of LNC’s no-spill cups, and also purportedly tortiously interfered with LNC’s prospective business relations. Granting Regent partial summary judgment, the court dismissed LNC’s Lanham Act claims as to its hard spout cup and flip-top cap product configurations. LNC failed to define a protectable interest therein under the Lanham Act. LNC did not dispute Regent’s evidence that the “football helmet” shaped flip-top cap with a “ring shaped base” was common in the market, nor raised an issue as to whether the product configurations were not generic and commonplace. Among other things, some hard spout cups matching LNC’s trade dress description were sold by other manufacturers as early as 1993—several years before LNC’s first hard spout cup became available for sale in 1998.
