Venable LLP recently secured a victory on behalf of luxury cosmetic brush designer Artis, LLC against reality TV personality Lilly Ghalichi and her company, Lilly Lashes, LLC, for selling counterfeit brushes that infringed upon Artis's exclusive intellectual property rights. After filing suit in the federal court in California, the Venable team negotiated a settlement agreement that included the complete takedown of Ms. Ghalichi's advertisements, including social media posts and references concerning the infringing products. Ms. Ghalichi also confirmed via posts to her millions of social media followers that the brushes she had advertised and sold under her name were knockoffs of Artis's products and that Artis LLC is the "exclusive owner and distributor of the Elite and Fluenta Collections of cosmetic brushes."
The victory further underscores Artis's strategy of zero tolerance against counterfeit goods imported into the United States and unauthorized attempts to trade upon the goodwill associated with Artis. Artis was represented in the suit by an interdisciplinary team specializing in global brand protection and commercial litigation: Tamany Bentz in Venable's Los Angeles office and Justin E. Pierce and Moxila A. Upadhyaya in Venable's Washington, DC office.