NY District Court Rules Cigar Aficionado Suit Against Cigar500.com May Proceed to Trial

Holding:

In this copyright and trademark infringement suit relating to plaintiff's Cigar Aficionado magazine and trademarks, the U.S. District Court denied defendant website operators' motion to dismiss. Defendants, charged for displaying on their website both the protected marks and a recent issue of the magazine, sought to dismiss the suit for lack of personal jurisdiction and under the doctrine of fair use. The District Court rejected both arguments, stating that defendants exhibited minimum contacts with New York, such as transacting steady business with New York residents via their interactive website. With respect to defendants' "fair use" argument, the District Court found that there were issues of material fact as to the adverse impact of the defendants’ use of the copyrighted works on the market for the plaintiff’s product. For these reasons, the District Court concluded that defendants’ claim of fair use cannot be decided on a motion to dismiss.

Detailed Summary:

Plaintiff, M. Shanken Communications, Inc. (“Cigar Aficionado”), filed this action against Cigar500.com, Inc. (“Cigar500” or “the Company”)  and its owners, Anthony Masciangelo, and Monique Masciangelo (collectively, “the defendants”) for copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 501, et seq. (the “Copyright Act”). Plaintiff also asserted claims of trademark infringement, unfair competition, and trademark dilution under 15 U.S.C. §§ 1114, 1116, 1125(a) &  1125(c)(collectively, the “Lanham Act claims”), and defamation against its popular magazine, Cigar Aficionado. Opinion, p. 1.

Cigar Aficionado alleged that Cigar500 infringed plaintiff’s trademarks and copyrights pertaining to Cigar Aficionado through defendants’ operation of an online retailing website at www.cigar500.com.…

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