Pirkey Barber members Travis Wimberly, Alex Bistline, and Steve Meleen secured a complete victory at trial for firm client Dryshod International, LLC, a premium waterproof footwear brand, in a long-running copyright and trademark dispute.
Haas Outdoors, Inc., one of the country’s largest creators of camouflage patterns for hunting and other apparel, filed the litigation against Dryshod. The case lasted over four years including related predecessor lawsuits. Haas Outdoors accused Dryshod of selling a waterproof boot with a camouflage pattern that allegedly infringed one of Haas Outdoors’ popular patterns called NEW BREAK-UP. Haas Outdoors also separately alleged that the product name of Dryshod’s boot, MOBU, infringed its trademark rights in the mark MOSSY OAK BREAK-UP.
The parties tried the case to the Honorable Robert Pitman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in October 2021. Pirkey Barber served as Dryshod’s sole trial counsel, presenting all arguments and conducting all witness examination. The court dismissed Haas Outdoors’ copyright claim orally from the bench at trial, on a motion brought and argued by the firm at the close of Haas’ evidence. The court found that the allegedly infringing camouflage pattern was not substantially similar to the NEW BREAK-UP pattern.
On July 22, 2022, the court issued a 30-page written opinion dismissing Haas’ Outdoors trademark infringement claims. The detailed written opinion adopted all of the positions urged by the firm on Dryshod’s behalf, including that Haas Outdoors owns no trademark rights in the term MOBU and that Dryshod’s use of that term was not likely to cause confusion with Haas’ MOSSY OAK BREAK-UP mark. The court’s comprehensive and sweeping rulings for Dryshod demonstrate the exceptional value and experience Pirkey Barber’s litigators bring to clients in the courtroom and in complex written pleadings.
The case is Haas Outdoors, Inc. v. Dryshod International, LLC, et al., United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, number 1:18-CV-978-RP.