Intellectual Property Attorney John S. Artz is quoted in the article “Yeti Enforces Trade Dress Over Rambler Cups as IPO Looms,” published by
Bloomberg BNA.
Austin-based Yeti Coolers LLC, which announced plans for an initial public offering last year, has asserted its rights in more than 50 intellectual property actions in federal court since late 2014, according to Bloomberg Law data.
Another target of Yeti’s enforcement efforts, Ontel Products Corp., maker of Rocky Mountain-branded drinkware, tried to preempt Yeti when it heard from its retail customers that Yeti was threatening to sue them. Ontel filed a declaratory judgment action in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, asking the court to declare that Rocky Mountain tumblers weren’t infringing. The court rejected that action, saying that hearing from customers about Yeti’s threats didn’t create a big enough fear of litigation to create a real case or controversy.
It was small consolation for Ontel that Yeti had actually sued it in Texas by the time the New Jersey ruling came down. “After we filed ours, we got sued, which was kind of our argument,” said Mr. Artz, Ontel’s lawyer.
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