Debra Deardourff Faulk and Steve Stein Successfully Defend Client in Trademark Dispute – Order Entered After 10 Years of Litigation

TAMPA, FL – May 25, 2016 – On April 27, 2016, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ("TTAB") issued a long awaited order in the Mini Melts, Inc. v. Reckitt Benckiser LLC trademark opposition. Intellectual property and technology attorney Debra Deardourff Faulk, shareholder in GrayRobinson’ s Tampa law firm office and Intellectual property and technology attorney Stefan V "Steve" Stein, also a shareholder in GrayRobinson’s Tampa law firm office, represented Reckitt Benckiser LLC and their Mucinex products. Faulk presented oral arguments in front of the TTAB in Washington D.C. on September 22, 2015.

The case, pending since 2006, ended in a precedential 38 page opinion of the TTAB following 10 years of litigation.  At the heart of litigation was a debate about the safety and use of the name "Children’s Mucinex Mini-Melts." Prior to the argument in front of the TTAB, Stein and Faulk successfully defended the case before a federal jury and bench trial in the Eastern District of Texas, a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The US Supreme Court ultimately denied certification.  The TTAB decision dismissed the opposition based on a likelihood of confusion in Reckitt’s favor, and held that safety considerations of products are not a factor in the likelihood of confusion analysis in this instance. The opposition was sustained to allow Reckitt to provide additional evidence of acquired distinctiveness in the trademark at issue.