Dennis L. Wilson

Wilson’s practice does not just involve litigating intellectual property cases on both the defense and the infringement fronts; it also means picking battles in an increasingly crowded technology field that grows by the day.

“The proliferation of infringement, or people trading off of any famous brand is exponential from where it was even a few years ago,” he said. “So you really have to triage, and decide what’s important to the business. Is there a real impact?”

One of those battles involved a suit in which a company sued Snap Inc. saying the company’s logo for “Spectacles” — wearable glasses that can record short videos and pictures to be sent via the Snapchat app — was too close to their own logo. Eyebobs LLC v. Snap Inc., 16-CV-4276 (D. Minn. May 8, 2017).

Wilson won a total victory on the suit, which sought to prevent Snap from launching an online sale platform and advertising campaign for the product.

In another, Wilson successfully defended Instagram LLC from a suit making “far-fetched” antitrust claims in addition to trademark claims. Instagram halted the company from using similar names for its services, and it sued in return saying it was not infringing. Pixels.com LLC v. Instagram LLC, 15-cv-03610-VC (N.D. Cal., filed Aug. 28, 2015).

The sheer amount of names, apps, and companies can present a challenge.

“Every name has been touched somehow by some person, it’s just often especially when you some to online and app store use. We’re playing in a global market, so there’s a crowded field all the time,” Wilson said.

Wilson also won a heavily publicized landmark decision protecting the rights for two boxing matches involving Floyd Mayweather Jr., including the famous 2015 fight against Manny Pacquiao.

He obtained an injunction against streaming sites advertising illegal broadcasts of the fight. The rub was that the streams had not even happened yet.

“The Mayweather fights were really interesting because live streaming means it’s a challenge that the infringement isn’t going to happen until the moment of the fight. So to tell a judge after the fact, after the infringing and streaming has occurred, it’s too late,” Wilson said.

Whether it involves apps or illegal live streams, Wilson’s work often takes him to the frontiers of technology, an aspect of his practice he relishes despite its challenges.

“Whether it’s on the product protection side or the technology distribution side, almost every time you get in front of a federal judge, they introduce the hearing by saying ‘I don’t use this product,’ ‘I don’t use this service,’ or ‘I don’t know how this works,’” he said.

“One of my favorite byproducts of working in this space is that it requires me to be up to speed on all the technology, and all the latest distribution and entertainment products and services. I get to be on the cutting edge because it’s a necessity.”

— Andy Serbe