MIAMI –– The company who distributed the film "Bad Moms" is embroiled in a legal battle with a Florida women's based networking group with the same name.
On Aug. 31, Judge Alicia O. Valle of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida ruled Bad Moms LLC must show why the group used the trademark and if the movie inspired their choice.
Bad Moms LLC defines itself as a startup business "for the purpose of planning and conducting business networking, social, commercial, and educational events geared toward women, and a line of wines and spirits targeted with the brand BAD MOMS."
STX Financing, who produced and distributed the movies by the same name, filed a lawsuit against Bad Moms LLC over trademark infringement.
According to the lawsuit, STX Financing is the " the producer and distributor of the motion pictures Bad Moms and A Bad Moms Christmas (the “Bad Moms Motion Pictures”).
In October 2017, STX sent Bad Moms a cease and desist letter, "demanding that it cease any use of the BAD MOMS mark.In addition, STX requested that Bad Moms, "abandon its pending applications to register BAD MOMS with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office". STX is suing for trademark infringement, trademark dilution and unfair competition under Florida law.
Bad Moms LLC argues it saw the use of "Bad Moms" in literature and idioms for at least five years prior to using it for the company name. Bad Moms LLC filed two applications with the US Trademark Registration regarding the name, according to court documents.
However, STX claimed that it had used the Bad Moms name since 2014 in the motion picture industry.
Bad Moms will now have until September 7, 2018 to provide the courts with additional information to argue its case.