Tecnoglass, LLC v. RC Home Showcase, Inc.

301 F. Supp. 3d 1267
District Court, S.D. Florida·Decided February 10, 2017·No. Civil Action No. 16–24328–Civ–Scola·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

Robert N. Scola, Jr., United States District Judge

The Plaintiff Tecnoglass, LLC, brings claims of copyright infringement, unfair competition under the Lanham Act, and several state-law causes of action against the Defendant, RC Home Showcase, Inc. (Compl., ECF No. 1.) Tecnoglass asserts that RC Home unlawfully copied its technical drawings and unfairly competed with its business. RC Home asks this Court to dismiss Tecnoglass's Complaint for failure to state a cause of action. (Mot., ECF No. 19). Tecnoglass responded (Resp., ECF No. 26), and RC Home replied (Reply, ECF No. 44). This matter is ripe for the Court's decision. For the reasons set forth in this Order, the Court denies in part and grants in part the Motion (ECF No. 19 ).

1. Background

In November 2013, Tecnoglass acquired intellectual property rights from non-party RC Aluminum Industries, Inc.,1 including rights related to RC Aluminum's Miami-Dade Notices of Acceptance ("NOA") for various windows, sliding glass doors, and window wall systems. (Compl. ¶ 3, ECF No. 1.). An NOA signifies compliance with the Florida Building Code and indicates that the Miami-Dade County Product Control Approval System has reviewed and approved technical drawings for a particular construction product.2 (Id. ¶ 4.) Almost a year after Tecnoglass acquired the right to use these NOAs, it initiated litigation in state court against RC Home alleging improper use of a subset of the NOAs acquired from RC Aluminum, which Tecnoglass terms "shared NOAs." (Id. ¶¶ 20-21.) This previous state-court litigation resulted in a settlement agreement. (Id. ¶¶ 21-22.) The settlement agreement provided RC Home limited *1271rights to use the shared NOAs, subject to termination of those rights after six months. (Id. ¶ 23.)

Now at issue in this case are Tecnoglass's copyright registrations for six technical drawings of window wall systems and sliding glass doors. (Id. ¶ 19.) According to Tecnoglass, RC Home accessed the technical drawings from Tecnoglass's NOAs available on the Miami-Dade County website. (Id. ¶ 29.) RC Home then copied the technical drawings and used the drawings in RC Home's own NOA applications, representing that the technical drawings in its applications belonged to RC Home. (Id. ¶¶ 29-30.) Additionally, RC Home's product designations are similar to those used by Tecnoglass-compare, for example, "Tecnoglass HP3070" with "RC Home FX 370." (Id. ¶ 39.) RC Home has sold its products, which are based on Tecnoglass's designs, to existing, former, and potential Tecnoglass customers. (Id. ¶¶ 40-44.)

Due to RC Home's actions, Tecnoglass submitted expedited applications for copyright registration for six of the technical drawings. (Id. ¶ 47.) The U.S. Copyright Office registered the six technical drawings on September 22, 2016, the same date Tecnoglass filed the applications. (Id. ¶ 48.) Tecnoglass included the copyright registrations as exhibits to the Complaint. (Id. Exs. C-H.)

Based on these facts, the Complaint asserts seven counts against RC Home: (1) Copyright Infringement; (2) Injunction and Temporary Restraining Order; (3) Breach of Contract; (4) Unjust Enrichment; (5) Tortious Interference with Business Relationship; (6) Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act ("FDUTPA"); and (7) Federal Unfair Competition under the Lanham Act. Defendant moves to dismiss, arguing that: (1) Tecnoglass's copyright registrations are invalid as a matter of law; (2) the Lanham Act claim is simply a restated claim for copyright infringement, and therefore preempted by the Copyright Act; (3) as both federal claims are invalid, the Court should decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state law claims; or (4) in the alternative, if the Court does not dismiss the federal claims, Tecnoglass's FDUTPA claim is preempted by the Copyright Act.

2. Legal Standard

When considering a motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), the Court must accept all of the Complaint's allegations as true, construing them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Pielage v. McConnell , 516 F.3d 1282, 1284 (11th Cir. 2008). A pleading need only contain "a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief." Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). "[T]he pleading standard Rule 8 announces does not require detailed factual allegations, but it demands more than an unadorned, the-defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation." Ashcroft v. Iqbal , 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quotation omitted). A plaintiff must articulate "enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face." Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly , 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007).

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Tecnoglass, LLC v. RC Home Showcase, Inc., 301 F. Supp. 3d 1267 (S.D. Fla. 2017).

301 F. Supp. 3d 1267 (Tecnoglass, LLC v. RC Home Showcase, Inc.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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