On Wednesday, Powerhouse Beverage Company, LLC, Live Life Smart, Inc. and Sparkling Your World, Inc. filed a complaint in the Southern District of New York against Frank Nahoum, Henry Gimenez, Joel Kringel, Behzad Peikarian and Thomas Stanziale, Esq. for falsely claiming that they were majority owners of Powerhouse Beverage when, according to the plaintiff, they were only minority owners of the company.
The complaint explained that Powerhouse Beverage’s founder created the trademark of IQ Juice and registered it to the company. For the past several years, the plaintiffs have used the trademarked name on various drinks and have “earned an excellent reputation” with this name.
Starting in 2017, the defendants sued the plaintiffs, claiming that they represented a majority of Powerhouse Beverage, and using “false claims and forged documents” to force Live Life Smart into bankruptcy. The plaintiffs believed that this was “an abuse of the legal system” since they needed 167 votes to represent a majority interest when they only had 125 votes.
The defendants allegedly filed numerous lawsuits in the Supreme Court of Nassau County and the Southern District of New York in order to take control of the plaintiffs’ companies despite their evidence having “missing documents and no evidence to support any of [their] claims.”
The plaintiffs have had to file for bankruptcy protection, hire lawyers and suffer great financial losses to combat these lawsuits. Thus, they are suing on the counts of a violation of the Lanham Act, declaratory relief for trademark ownership, unfair competition, trademark dilution, RICO, misappropriation of intellectual property, fraud, abuse of process, prima facie tort, and conspiracy.
The plaintiffs are seeking declaratory relief, injunctive relief enjoining the defendants from continuing to infringe Powerhouse Beverage’s trademarks, special damages, general damages, and punitive damages in the amount of ten million dollars plus ten thousand dollars per day, attorney’s fees and costs, and other relief.
The plaintiffs are represented by Robert G. Leino, Esq.
