Court Dismisses Remaining Claims Asserted Against Condé Nast and Vogue Magazine

Following oral argument on Tuesday, October 19, 2010, Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York granted the motion of Kramer Levin clients Condé Nast and Vogue Magazine for summary judgment, and dismissed all pending counterclaims asserted by Vogue’s former web site vendor Active8. These claims included unfair competition, trade secret misappropriation, unjust enrichment and civil conspiracy, among others. The Court did however grant Active8 the right to replead one narrowly defined trademark infringement counterclaim, but will allow Active8 to move forward only if it can prove such counterclaim is viable through additional limited discovery.

By way of background, Vogue Magazine hired web site vendor Active8 in the Spring of 2004 to convert advertising pages from the September 2004 Vogue Magazine issue into interactive pages on the ShopVogue.com website. After Vogue Magazine switched to a different web site vendor in the Fall of 2004, Active8 sued Condé Nast in 2005 under some twenty causes of action including inter alia patent infringement, trademark infringement, trade secret misappropriation, RICO violations and civil conspiracy, etc.

Late last year, Judge Kenneth Karas of the Southern District of New York ruled in favor of Condé Nast on all aspects of the patent infringement claims. The action was then transferred to Judge Hellerstein who dismissed the patent infringement claims and several other claims from the case.

Condé Nast’s summary judgment motion brought earlier this year sought dismissal on various grounds of the remaining seven causes of action asserted by Active8. The Court’s “Summary Order Dismissing Counterclaims with Limited Leave to Replead” dated October 20, 2010 dismissed all of the remaining counterclaims (with the limited right to replead noted above).

Intellectual Property Partner Randy Lipsitz is lead counsel for Condé Nast. He is assisted by Special Counsel Richard L. Moss, and Associates Aaron Frankel and Heather J. Chase.

Law360 reported on the case.