Peoria, Illinois-based Global Hemp Inc. is seeking a default judgment in federal court against a Kentucky company in a trademark infringement dispute.
Global Hemp first filed suit in federal court in Kentucky in early 2020 to stop Hemp Solutions LLC from operating its business under the name “Global Hemp Solutions” because its advertising activities were causing confusion in the marketplace, the plaintiff claimed. Global Hemp Inc. dates to 1996, while Hemp Solutions LLC started in 2019.
The latest development in the case was first reported by Law 360.
Three defendants
In the latest motion filed recently with U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell, Global Hemp Inc. is seeking the default judgment against Chief Operating Officer Marco Vinicio Villatoro and Hemp Solutions, the company, after those defendants stopped responding in the ongoing suit following a split with their attorneys. Global Hemp is also seeking a permanent injunction against those two defendants.
A third defendant in the suit, CEO Jeremy Luciano, has since found another attorney to represent him in the case.
The motion seeking the default judgment was filed recently with U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell.
Different businesses
Villatoro, Luciano and their company were named in the original lawsuit filed in January 2020. The defendants filed an initial response a month later in which they argued that their business selling hemp processing equipment differs from that of Global Hemp, which is a retailer of hemp products.
Industrial Hemp Solutions “does not participate in the same market as plaintiffs and the companies do not compete with one another,” the defendants said at the time.
The company and Villatoro have since then “ignored correspondence and ignored these legal proceedings while continuing to sell infringing products and use infringing domain names,” Global Hemp claims.
