Practice Areas & Industries: Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, L.L.P.

Practice/Industry Group Overview

False Advertising
If a client’s brand and goodwill are threatened by false statements or deceptive advertising, immediate relief is often needed.  We are well versed with the Lanham Act and understand the nuances of false statements, deceptive practices, and consumer confusion.  We have successfully achieved swift resolutions for our clients, including restraining orders.

Representative Engagements

Cirque du Soleil maintains its good name
Cirque du Soleil turned to Finnegan when its brand name was misused in advertising. We obtained a temporary restraining order enjoining a nightclub from falsely advertising that Cirque du Soleil would be performing at the club’s New Year's Eve party.

Protecting a trade association’s reputation, trademark, and consumer safety in the oil and gas industry
Finnegan represented the American Petroleum Institute (API), the nation’s leading trade association for petroleum companies. Defendant PEMCO had unsuccessfully sought to have oil drilling and oil well equipment certified by API. Despite the fact that it was not certified, PEMCO placed a counterfeit of the API certification mark on its products. API objected and PEMCO agreed to cease using the counterfeit API certification mark. API later discovered that PEMCO was continuing to use the counterfeit API certification mark and retained Finnegan to sue PEMCO for trademark infringement, counterfeiting, and breach of contract. PEMCO agreed to a permanent injunction against further use of the API marks and payment of API’s costs. This result successfully stopped a counterfeiting operation that falsely passed off uncertified products as meeting API’s safety standards.