Southern District of New York Reinstates Misappropriation of Ideas Claim, Dismisses Certain of Defendants’ Defenses, and Awards Discovery Sanctions

Leason Ellis achieved a number of victories in the Southern District of New York for its client, consumer product innovator, Town & Country Linen Corp., in an ongoing complex dispute against HSN, Inc., Ingenious Designs LLC, and Joy Mangano:

 
• In a rare reversal, the Court granted our motion for reconsideration, which reinstated our client’s misappropriation of ideas claim that had been improperly dismissed.
 
• We subsequently secured dismissal of a number of the defendants’ counterclaims and defenses with prejudice. The Court further granted our request to sanction defendants, ordering them to pay our client’s attorneys’ fees and costs relating to any discovery on a belatedly asserted counterclaim for breach of contract. Shortly thereafter, Defendants agreed to dismiss this counterclaim with prejudice.

We obtained further sanctions during expert discovery, where defendants were required to pay our client’s attorneys’ fees and costs relating to a supplemental expert deposition.

The Leason Ellis team included partner Robert Isackson and associates Lauren Sabol, Hoda Rifai-Bashjawish, Lori Cooper, Chelsea Russell, and Christina Sauerborn. See Town & Country Linen Corp. and Town & Country Holdings, Inc. v. Ingenious Designs LLC, et al., Case 1:18-cv-05075-LJL (SDNY)