MIAMI — A California artwork business is suing a competitor, alleging copyright infringement and unfair competition.
Sanrio Inc. of South San Francisco, California, filed a lawsuit Nov. 15 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida against Beauty Exchange Inc., doing business as a Beauty Exchange No. 1, Sana Beauty Supplies Inc., doing business as a Beauty Exchange No. 2, Ahmad Muntaser, Mohamad Muntaser et al., alleging unauthorized distribution of an intellectual property.
According to the complaint, Sanrio has been in the business of manufacturing, distributing and selling a wide range of products based on globally known characters and designs, and also has produced television programming based on the character artwork, such as Hello Kitty, KeroKeroKeroppi, My Melody and others.
The suit says the the defendants have advertised, marketed, promoted, distributed and sold wholesale quantities of unauthorized merchandise, featuring designs of Sanrio's famous characters, without permission or license from the plaintiff, thereby causing substantial injuries to Sanrio's reputation and good will.
The plaintiff alleges the defendants caused a likelihood of confusion, deception and mistake as to their affiliation with Sanrio, caused the plaintiff to suffer lost profits and damages to its business, reputation and good will, obtained profit at the expense of the plaintiff and introduced an infringing product into the stream of commerce.
Sanrio seeks trial by jury, permanent injunctive relief, and order to immediately cease any promotion and selling of unauthorized merchandise, destroy all unauthorized merchandise, award three times defendants' profits from infringement after accounting, statutory damages of $200,000 for every infringed trademarks, 2 million for willful trademark infringement, statutory damages of not less than $750 and more than $30,000 per copyrighted property infringed or $150,000 per infringement for willful conduct, attorney fees, investigative fees, court costs and all other relief the court deems just. It is represented by attorneys Michael W.O. Holihan and Kimberly Harchuck of Holihan Law in Maitland.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Case number 16-cv-62697