LOS ANGELES – A Diamond Bar toy company that manufactures Picassotiles alleges a competitor had its product removed from Amazon in an effort to reduce competition.
Laltitude LLC filed a complaint on Aug. 31 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against 18th Avenue Toys LTD and Yaacov Schwartz alleging unfair business practices, trade libel and other counts.
According to the complaint, Laltitude is a manufacturer of magnetic tile toys and the defendants are its competitors. The suit states that the defendants registered a copyright and applied for a patent design for its tiles after the plaintiff's tiles were already available for sale. The plaintiff holds 18th Avenue Toys LTD and Schwartz responsible because the defendants allegedly applied to Amazon.com to have the plaintiff's toys removed from the website over copyright complaints, which has resulted in a loss of sales for the plaintiff.
The plaintiff seeks disgorgement of all allegedly ill-gotten profits derived from the unlawful acts, punitive damages, monetary damages, all legal fees and any other relief as the court deems just. It is represented by Marsha E. Diedrich, Casondra K. Ruga and Evan W. Woolley of Alston & Bird LLP in Los Angeles.
U.S. District Court for the Central District of California Case number 2:16-cv-06562-SS