CEA Seeks Contempt Order Against Promoter for Defying Injunction
CEA wants the Miami-based promoter of a CE technology trade show found in contempt on grounds it has defied a July 2 preliminary injunction barring its use of trade names and service marks that mimic the CES brand.
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CEA filed Wednesday for a show-cause order in U.S. District Court, Miami, asking why defendants Compras and Buys Magazine Inc. and owner Justin M. Finocchiaro shouldn’t be held in civil contempt for ignoring the injunction. The defendants run a trade show, ACES 09, set March 6-8, 2009, at the Miami Beach Convention Center. The court, finding for CEA, ruled that ACES and others among company service marks are “confusingly similar” to the association’s CES and other marks, granting the injunction.
Just as the defendants never responded to CEA’s motion for an injunction, so, too, have they “spurned” the court order to remove the infringing marks, CEA said. The ACES mark remained on the show’s Web site, www.aceshow.org, late Thursday.
We e-mailed www.aceshow.org for comment and late Thursday got a reply from an individual identified only as Michael, saying the CEA “pulled a fast one by announcing that they had a motion for a preliminary injunction against us.” We asked Michael if he was the Justin M. Finocchiaro referred to court papers, and he said in another email reply that he was.
His company had just learned of the injunction granted over two weeks ago, Michael said. “All this was done without our knowledge and very quietly,” he said. “Preliminary means that they have not been awarded anything.” CEA “is so worried” about competition “that they are confusing apples and oranges,” Michael said. “They are the ‘International Consumer Electronics Show.’ We are ‘Americas Technology Show’ -- very different. They are worried that they will lose exhibitors, and rightly so, to the new guy on the block.”
His firm never answered CEA’s motion for injunction “because CEA did it without our knowledge [and] took advantage of the time we needed to acquire a new attorney,” Michael said. “Many companies want new markets, new trade show energy and a dynamic fast-forward show that opens new doors to new emerging markets, new entrepreneurs, new money, new business. We are that show. Take a look at our Web site and see what we mean. Nowhere is ‘consumer electronics’ mentioned, but they are worried nonetheless. ACES 09 is a trade show for progressive exhibitors, not the same old, same old.”