UT District Court Dismisses "Chemisan TM" Claim, Orders Field Sanitation to Amend Complaint

Holding:

The U.S. District Court for the District of Utah dismissed a Lanham Act claim relating to a waste technology named "Chemisan TM." Plaintiff Field Sanitation Solutions, Inc., Faith Unlimited, Inc., and Charles W. Kallman asserted under the Lanham Act that defendant Hansen Energy & Environmental, LLC acted to falsely mislead third parties to believe that the alleged "Waste Technology" product at issue was developed by or otherwise affiliated with defendants. In response, defendants filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that the complaint was simply deficient in alleging a Lanham Act claim because it failed to allege that a product/good or service actually existed, and failed to allege any false statements regarding the origin or endorsement of same. Because plaintiffs failed to assert that defendants took plaintiffs’ actual, physical good and repackaged it as defendants’ own, the district court dismissed the Lanham Act claim, but granted plaintiffs leave to file an amended complaint.

Detailed Summary:

For resolution by the district court was the motion to dismiss filed by defendant Hansen Energy and Environmental, LLC, Conly Hansen, Carl S. Hansen, Jaron C. Hansen, and Jason Miller’(“defendants”).

Plaintiffs asserted fourteen causes of action against defendants, all of which arose under state law, except for the Ninth Cause of Action, which arose under the Lanham Act. In this motion, defendants claimed that plaintiffs failed to state a Lanham Act claim, and therefore, the district court should dismiss the Ninth Cause of Action. Memorandum Decision and Order, pp. 1-2.

With regard to their purported Lanham Act claim, plaintiffs contended that…

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