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July 2017
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New York City Council Passes Bill Making NYPD's Forfeiture Process More Transparent

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For months now, the NYPD has been arguing in court it can't possibly hand over records related to its forfeitures. The problem appears to be the NYPD itself. The department spent millions on new software specifically to track the disposition of seized items. But when faced with a public records suit by the Bronx Defenders, the NYPD claimed the software can't do the one thing it's supposed to do: track the disposition of seized items.The NYPD provides limited reporting on forfeitures, but the numbers produced have almost zero relation to reality. According to the NYPD, it only forfeited $12,000 in cash in 2015. According to numbers obtained by the Bronx Defenders, the NYPD's forfeiture office had nearly $69 million in cash on hand when queried in 2013 -- something that would take 5,750 years to amass at the rate cited by the NYPD. Not only that, but other documents showed NYPD property clerks were processing thousands of dollars every month, totaling $6 million in forfeiture transactions in 2013 alone. It seems unlikely the NYPD's forfeitures dropped to this impossibly-low level between 2013 and 2015.But still the NYPD insists it can't make its cradle-to-grave forfeiture-tracking system produce the stats Bronx Defenders are looking for. It needs to figure out its issues soon. The city council is calling the NYPD's bluff.

Every year the NYPD seizes millions of dollars in assets from innocent New Yorkers, who often have to fight a dizzying bureaucracy to get their property back. But today the City Council is poised to pass legislation that would make the practice vastly more transparent.The bill, which is expected to pass this afternoon, will require the NYPD to release annual reports on how much they seize from New Yorkers during stops and arrests and through the use of civil forfeiture, and account for what happens to the assets after they’re in custody."This first-of-its-kind transparency bill will shed light on the reasons why the NYPD has seized someone's property, whether revenue is generated from property seizure, and if an individual has been able to get their property back," said Bronx Councilman Ritchie Torres, the bill's primary sponsor. "The legislation will help ensure that the civil forfeiture process is used legitimately.”
The bill has indeed passed and institutes new reporting requirements for the NYPD.
This bill requires the NYPD to report on an annual basis on data relating to the property and money the department obtains possession of in the course of an arrest. The bill requires the data be broken down to include the amount of money or the property obtained and retained, the reason why the property or money is being held by the department, and whether or not the rightful owners of the property or money have failed to redeem such money or property. Additionally, the bill requires the NYPD to report on any sale or disposition of money or property seized during an arrest that was retained by the Department.
This forces the NYPD to provide information proactively. It can no longer hide behind claims of faulty software or a particularly labyrinthine public records process. It won't force the NYPD to say how the money's being spent, but will at least provide more transparency and accountability. The new data should make it slightly easier to identify abuse and could assist those fighting to reclaim their property. All it needs is the governor's signature to make it official.

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posted at: 12:01am on 29-Jul-2017
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Cigar City Brewing Sues Cigar City Salsa Over Trademark Despite Being In Different Marketplaces

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I'm generally not much for the summer season, but one sensation I do love is getting home from work on a painfully hot day, having just purchased a six-pack of beer, and cracking open a cold one in the evening. The only thing that occasionally gets in the way of that is when I lift the bottle to my mouth and then immediately realize that instead of beer, I bought salsa.Wait, that doesn't ever happen. And, yet, according to a lawsuit brought by Cigar City Brewing against Cigar City Smoked Salsa, customer confusion appears to be a chief concern.

Cigar City Brewing is suing Cigar City Smoked Salsa for trademark infringement, alleging that the labels and marks used by the salsa maker are so similar to the brewery’s material that consumers may think both products come from the same company.
Fine, so the suit doesn't so much allege that customers are going to confuse salsa and beer, but rather that the same company might be making both of them. The filing itself claims that there have been instances of actual confusion with the public and purchasing agents for stores that thought both products were made by the same company. That, frankly, is difficult to believe. It's all the more difficult to believe that this occurs on a large scale, for multiple reasons.To start, Cigar City is a common moniker for Tampa, Florida. It's a nod to the large Cuban population there. As such, there are all manner of businesses that incorporate the nickname into their business names. Types of businesses include gyms, music management, cattle farming, comedy clubs, and so on. It's not a terribly good identifier of source for that geographic area, in other words.To get around this, the filing goes to some lengths to try to suggest that beer and salsa are in fact in the same markets by virtue both that the items are sold in the same stores and, incredibly, that the public sometimes likes to have a beer and eat chips at the same time.
Plaintiff’s beers and Defendant’s salsa are sold in the same channels of trade, including grocery stores, and liquor stores. For example, both parties’ products are sold in Publix Supermarkets, Walmart stores and ABC liquor stores, among others (Exhibits 13, 14, 15 and 16). Beer and salsa, typically with snack chips, or with salsa on or in entrees, are frequently consumed together by the same persons and are thus purchased by the same types of consumers.
Except that isn't how markets are defined in trademark law. Instead, belligerents must be in direct competition with each other in their products for the markets to be a match, and salsa is not beer. They are closer in terms of the marketplace than, say, Cigar City Crossfit, but I imagine that beef sourced form Cigar City Cattle Company may well be sold in those same stores, yet there is not trademark action against them. So far, in summary, we have a common nickname used by two businesses in disparate industries.Now, the filing goes on to note that Cigar City Brewing is opposing the trademark registration for Cigar City Smoked Salsa, but that this opposition is pending. So this suit was filed before the USPTO has even had a chance to weigh in on the matter, which seems like a mistake. If nothing else, the ruling on the opposition would provide Cigar City Brewing with either more ammunition for its lawsuit, or, if defeated, an indication that it probably shouldn't file the suit to begin with. And the outcome of that opposition isn't exactly an assured slam dunk for Cigar City Brewing, as its own Exhibits in this lawsuit comparing the trade dress are of questionable use. First is the labels on the salsa that Cigar City Brewing repeatedly objects to as infringing and confusing.

And here is Cigar City Brewing's own logo. For what it's worth, they have several iterations of this and I chose the one most favorable to Cigar City Brewing's position.

I'm certain the brewery is trying to make a point complaining about the two logos, although what that point could possibly be is beyond me. Beyond both being black and white images, little else about the two logos has anything to do with the other. Frankly, the filing is full of exhibits like this, pretty much all of which offer nothing more compelling than this side by side comparison. I just cannot believe anyone in the grocery or liquor business is seriously confused by any of this.So, a common nickname used in different industries with trade dress that isn't similar while a trademark opposition is currently in process. Why in the world was this thing ever even filed?

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posted at: 12:01am on 29-Jul-2017
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