In intellectual property disputes, the strength of a section 75-1.1 claim or an unfair competition claim often rises or falls with a trademark infringement claim. For instance, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 80-12 provides that a violation of state trademark law constitutes a per se violation of section 75-1.1. Additionally, while a […]
In this week’s post, we’re taking a trip across the country to see how a federal court in Utah applied section 75-1.1. We’ve previously written about how courts outside of North Carolina interpret section 75-1.1, like this one in California, or this one in Massachusetts. Last month, the U.S. District […]
Today’s post is about North Carolina’s common-law tort of unfair competition. We’ve talked about the tort before, and mentioned her a time or two in passing. But often, we just remember unfair competition as “the child of confusion,” the stepsister of trademark infringement, and the oft-forgotten cousin of section 75-1.1. […]
If you’ve ever pulled up N.C. Gen. Stat. § 75-1.1 on WestLaw or Lexis, you may have noticed that the statute is flagged as “unconstitutional or preempted.” This notation is there, in part, due to a 2008 case that holds that the Copyright Act of 1976 (17 U.S.C. §§ 106, […]